KARACHI, June 15: Active trading was witnessed on the cotton market on Thursday as spinners and mills resumed normal buying operations haunted apparently by pressure on futures supplies.

As a result, some of the fine lots from the southern Punjab cotton belt fetched the season’s highest price of Rs2,700 per maund, while a good number of lots were sold at various rates depending on quality and staple length, brokers said.

Some of the lots from the central Punjab belt were sold at the lowest price of Rs.2,395, they said. “The revival of strong mill demand reflects that some of them have already found cue about the textile package, likely to be announced in next two days, to boost textile exports to the targeted figure of $14bn during the next fiscal,” they added.

However, ginners holding bulk of the unsold stocks of fine variety appeared to be in no hurry and still were still expected better prices after having sold in part some lots at Rs2,700. The interesting feature was that some of the ginners sold their odd lots at various rates to clear the backlog at lower prices.

However, weaker links among the textile giants are a bit worried over the developing situation on the cotton front, notably higher lint prices and their negative impact on overheads and production costs, some spinners fear.

Leading spinners, whose traditional and regular export outlets having signed forward deals, are said to be active buyers even at the rising prices, they added.

As a result, official spot rates did not show any change as feedback from the ready market was positive and were firmly held at the previous levels.

New York cotton futures on the other hand lacked normal speculative interest and turned mixed. While the maturing July contract posted a fractional rise of 0.8 cents at 51.83, the October settlement fell by 0.12 cents at 55.12 cents per lb.

Ready off-take was on the higher side totalling 7,000 bales as under: 539 bales, Bahawalpur at Rs2,700, 2,000 bales, Mehrabpur at Rs2,615, 2,100 bales, at Rs2,575, 100 bales, each Pakpattan at Rs2,395 and Rs2,455, 200 bales, Vehari at Rs2,475, 400 bales, Shujabad at Rs2,500, 139 bales, Kehror Pacca at Rs2,600 and 509 bales, Lodran at Rs2,600.