KARACHI, Nov 2: Cotton market on Thursday maintained firm trend as mill buying remained fairly active around the current levels, which brokers said, conform to mills export parity levels.
During the last couple of sessions over 0.1m bales changed hands which reflected that spinners were out to corner the floating stock below Rs2,425.00 per maund.
Ginners said as the arrivals of phutti into the ginneries were on the higher side and growers were selling their stocks around the current rate of Rs1,100 per 40 kg.
“We pass on the lint to the spinners after adding conversion charges and without taking any risk in a market that is essentially volatile,” they added.
But leading ginners attributed the current panic mill buying to race for grabbing available fine lots which they needed to spin higher counts of cotton yarn and cloth for export markets.
“The price war among the leading spinners and the mills appears to be at its peak,” they said, adding “but unlike the previous seasons prices did not respond positively to panic buying and remained stable despite massive ready off-take”.
Market sources said major mill emphasis remained on the Punjab lint, which said to be much better in quality and staple length as compared to central Sindh type.
However, they said there was no official word from the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) on the one million bales of contamination-free lint, which the corporation plans to procure during the current season.
Official spot rates were again held unchanged around the overnight levels, although most of the deals were done well above them depending on quality.
Ready business was relatively slow as some of the leading spinners and mills took a technical breather to have an overview of their inventories as well as to keep prices within the current levels.
About 10,000 bales changed hands both from the Sindh and the Punjab cotton belts between Rs2,325 to Rs2,425 per maund.
