June 18, 2006	Sunday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 21, 1427

KARACHI, June 17: The cotton market finished the weekend session on a steady note but physical business remained at low ebb, as price ideas of buyers and sellers failed to find a meeting ground owing perhaps to higher asking prices.

But some of the brokers reported that stray lots did change hands in the southern Punjab cotton belt, details of which were not immediately transmitted. Most of the lots comprised of low-mic lint needed by spinners for blending purposes to produce blended yarn for export markets.

Some others said the spinners and mills might go slow and purchase only those lots which were in line with their export parity levels before but might go for fine lots at Rs2,700 per maund as they would prefer to bid at higher rates for lint from the TCP, being offered for sale on June 26.

However, they said the TCP tenders, participated by both the spinners and foreign buyers, did not influence local market either-way, as the quantity was too small to set the market trend.

“The activity on the market may remain sluggish in the coming weeks until the new crop from lower Sindh ginneries arrives as a short crop and higher world prices have created more than one problem for the spinners, notably on the export front,” they added.

The next couple of weeks could be very crucial for the textile industry guided by supply and demand factors and that could cause further increase in prices, some others said.

Meanwhile, reports reaching here from the major cotton growing areas indicate that the growth of the plants is normal and there are no reports of pest attack in any of the areas. The extremely warm weather is killing pests and insects at the initial stage of breeding.

There was no change in the official spot rates for the fourth straight session in the absence of positive feedback from the ready section where ready off-take remained light.

New York cotton futures on the other hand suffered modest decline of 0.37 cents per lb for both the ruling July and distant October settlements at 52.07 and 55.53 cents per lb, respectively.

In the ready section, dealers reported that 1,000 bales changed hands at around Rs2,525 and Rs2,600 per maund depending on the quality of lint in trade.