October 21, 2006	Saturday	Ramazan 27, 1427

KARACHI, Oct 20: Dull trading conditions prevailed on the cotton market on Friday as leading ginners were conspicuous by their absence in an apparent attempt to forestall further decline in prices.

Owing to Jumatul Widah, major Punjab cotton markets were closed and in the absence of price indicators from major trading centres, local brokers also played safe as the ginners not inclined to lower their asking prices.

The physical activity in part was also affected by the upcoming Eid holidays as spinners were not inclined to make fresh commitments owing to delivery problems, brokers said.

Spinners said it was too risky to make fresh commitments in pre-Eid holiday sessions as anything could happen in between that could push prices further down.

As a result, despite some offers by the local mills to buy modest lots for delivery on Saturday (Oct 21), some of the local brokers were not in an obliging mood fearing some problems on both ends, they said.

Meanwhile, reports coming from the upper Sindh and southern Punjab cotton belts indicate that picking operations of phutti will remain suspended for about a week owing to Eid holidays, which may push prices of lint higher as supplies to ginners would remain suspended.

But some others said the ginners were worried over larger unsold stocks and some of them might indulge in hasty selling to clear the backlog fearing further decline in prices, brokers said.

Official spot rates were again firmly held unchanged at the last level of Rs2,375 per maund, but in physical trading ginners quoted higher prices.

New York cotton futures on the other hand rose by 0.42 and 0.52 cents per lb for both the ruling December and the forward March contracts at 48.75 and 51.95 cents, respectively.

Ready offtake was light totalling about 3,000 bales, most of deals were from the Sindh ginneries and were done around Rs2,325 per maund.