August 16, 2006	Wednesday	Rajab 20, 1427

KARACHI, Aug 15: After a two-day closure trading activity on the cotton market failed to pick up, as worried by the delivery problems owing to fresh rain in the Sindh cotton belt, spinners and mills kept to the sidelines.

The notable feature of the day was that the new crop came on the official trading board and spot rates were quoted around Rs2,450 in line with those at which physical trading is being done in the ready section.

Owing to reports of fresh rain in the lower and central Sindh cotton belt phutti arrivals into ginneries remained suspended and most of the mills were operating on pre-rain stocks, brokers said.

They said the arrivals might remain slow during the next couple of sessions, as picking operations of phutti were suspended because of wet fields.

In normal situations as the prevailing one in the backdrop of supply and demand, ginners mostly raise their asking prices but as the spinners are not inclined to go beyond their export parity levels, status quo is being maintained by both the sellers and the buyers, market sources said.

Meanwhile, local reports said ready offtake of cotton yarn by the ancillary industry is on the higher side as prices remained stable around the previous levels.

On the export front, physical shipments of textiles were maintained on the higher side for the current quarter ending Sept 30, while some of the leading spinners have secured fresh orders for the next quarter.

Punjab’s new crop lint is being quoted well above the official rate of Rs2,450 per maund, which is apparently based on the lower Sindh type.

New York cotton futures on other hand came in for renewed selling on higher crop ideas and were further marked down by 1.03 and 0.108 cents per lb for both the ruling October and forward December contracts, respectively.

Ready offtake was dull as till late in the evening a lot of 200 bales from a Tando Adam ginnery changed hands at Rs2,500 per maund.