June 15, 2006	Thursday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 18, 1427

KARACHI, June 14: Cotton market on Wednesday maintained a firm outlook as ginners further raised their asking prices on the perception that lower unsold stocks have given them the needed leverage to set the future trend.

As a result, some of the deals in the ready section were done as higher Rs2,665 per maund, which is the season’s highest rate so far, brokers said adding the ginners appear to be in a commanding position eyeing further boost in prices of fine lint from the upper Sindh and southern Punjab cotton belt.But spinners on the other hand opted for new buying strategy in an apparent effort to keep a balance in their export parity level.

Along with some fine lots, they are now also buying inferior lint for blending purposes to spin higher counts of cotton yarn both for the export markets and to produce blended cloth, they said.

Floor brokers said leading ginners who are still holding bulk of the unsold stock of about 0.250m bales are firmly holding on to their positions amid market talk that the market is expected to further heat up in the coming weeks before the arrival of the new crop from the lower Sindh ginneries.

After having successfully bidding in the recent TCP tender for 30,000 bales, spinners and mills are now intend to lift all the lots still lying with the ginners to cover their forward sales of yarn and cloth to foreign buyers, they said.

But spinners also have in mind not to indulge in hasty buying, which in turn could push lint prices further higher. However, the general perception that ginners will sell their stocks before June 30, to meet their bank demands may not have any relevance to the developing situation on the cotton front, some others said.

Official spot rates, therefore, did not show any change and were firmly held at the previous level of Rs2,525 per maund but some of the deals were done above them.

New York cotton futures on the other hand came in for active selling and fell by 0.95 and 1.51 cents per lb at 51.75 and 55.24 for both the ruling July and the distant October settlements, respectively.

Ready off-take was light totalling 3,000 bales, as under: 476, bales from the Punjab ginneries at Rs2,665, 1,000 bales, Kigri at 2,600, 500 bales, Kacha Khoo at 2,350 and 200 bales, from Sindh ginneries at 2,575.