September 27, 2006	Wednesday	Ramazan 3, 1427

KARACHI, Sept 26: Cotton prices on Tuesday eased further from the recent highs on near-panic selling by ginners, as the arrival of phutti (seed cotton) continued to flood their ginneries for the last couple of days.

Most of the lots in Sindh variety were traded as low as Rs2,450 and that of Punjab around Rs2,550 per maund, about Rs150 to Rs200 lower than the seasonal high of Rs2,650 and Rs2,725 per maund, dealers said.

Spinners lifted all the lots including some big ones consisting of 2,000 to 3,000 bales at the lower levels amid rumours that prices could fell further lower in the coming sessions based on larger phutti arrivals.

An idea of panic among the growers may well be had from the fact that they are not inclined to hold stocks of phutti for better price but dumping it into the ginneries.

Ginners too are in a fix and could not precisely decide how to cope with the developing situation on the cotton front after rumours of a short crop.

“Ginners are facing another problem of unfixed phutti as unlike the previous weeks, growers are not fixing the selling prices hoping an improvement after prices have declined from Rs1,400 to Rs1,100 per 40 kg,” market source said.

“In the presence of unfixed phutti in our ginneries, we can’t sell lint at our own on the basis of unfixed phutti and if we do it clear the backlog, growers claim higher prices,” ginners said.

And the conflicting views are that ginners have to lower lint rates for those lots already sold by the growers, in some cases even at loss, they said. “Cotton trade appears to be in the tight grip of speculative forces and prices are being manipulated at the whims of outside players,” they said.

It was in this background that official spot rates were further lowered by Rs50 and in line with those of lint at Rs2,500 per maund.

New York cotton futures on the other hand recovered modestly by 0.24 and 0.49 cents at 50.31 and 51.61 cents per lb for both the ruling October and the forward December settlements, respectively.

Ready offtake was on the higher side of the weekly averages as spinners made hectic covering purchases at the falling prices.

The following are some of the deals, which gone through on Tuesday:

SINDH TYPE: 3,000 bales, Mirpurkhas at Rs2,400 to Rs2,450; 2,000 bales, Shahdadpur at Rs2,450 to Rs2,500; 400 bales, Moro at Rs2,500; 400 bales, Sanghar at Rs2,400; and 200 bales, Shahpur Chakkar at Rs2,450.

PUNJAB VARIETY: 2,000 bales, Bahawalnagar at Rs2,525 to Rs2,550; 1,400 bales, Bahawalpur at Rs2,525 to Rs2,575; 400 bales, Gojra at Rs2,575; 600 bales, Chistian at Rs2,550; 600 bales, Sahiwal at Rs2,550 to Rs2,575; 800 bales, Haroonabad, 200 bales, Ghaziabad, 200 bales, Mian Channu at Rs2,550; 200 bales, Ghara More at Rs2,525; 200 bales Madrash at Rs2,525; and 400 bales, Hasilpur at Rs2,550 to Rs2,575.