July 12, 2006	Wednesday	Jumadi-ul-Sani 15, 1427

KARACHI, July 11: The cotton market on Tuesday resisted fresh decline as ginners held on to their unsold stocks rather than selling at the lower levels.

But lower bids offered at the recent TCP tender for 42,000 bales was another adverse factor as spinners entertained lower price level, while ginners were sellers at around Rs2,600 per maund, which curtailed the mill daily intake.

Floor brokers said some of the leading ginners from the southern Punjab cotton belt who hold on to bulk of the unsold stock mostly of fine type are not inclined to be deterred by the supply and demand factors before the arrival of the new crop from lower Sindh ginneries are said to sitting pretty comfortable on their holding.

The perception behind the strong holding capacity appears to be a fair prices as unsold stocks are not large to which heavy cash amounts may have to be tied, they said.

“We can sell them just in day as we know spinners need it,” says a leading ginner. “But the price factor is the main factor keeping the mills away.”

The other factor causing low daily volume was the TCP tenders and falling world prices, which made imports of lint a bit competitive, he added.

Meanwhile, reports reaching here from the lower Sindh cotton belt indicates that picking operations suspended owing to rain have again been resumed and more factories are expected to resume operations during the next couple of days.

Some other reports said

the growth of the new crop was normal and the recent rain in some of the cotton growing

areas of Sindh and Punjab has made up the irrigation water shortfall.

Official spot rates were held unchanged at Rs2575 per maund as the ginners kept to the sidelines rather than selling their stock at the lower levels.

New York cotton futures on the other hand rose by 0.44 and 0.42 cents per lb at 50.49 and 52.30, respectively, for both the ruling October and forward December settlements.

Ready off-take was light totalling about 1,500 bales, all from the southern Punjab cotton belt and was done at around the official spot rates.