November 16, 2006	Thursday	Shawwal 23, 1427

KARACHI, Nov 15: Firm trend was witnessed on the cotton market on Wednesday as spinners and mills continued to make panic buying around the current levels amid fears of a short crop.

An idea of panic mill buying may well be had from the fact that some of the leading spinner groups indulged in big-lot business of 5,000 and 7,000 bales amid fears of an imminent increase in the ruling prices, brokers said.

However, unlike the previous sessions, most of the deals were done around Rs2,450 halting widely speculated further increase in prices by the ginners, they said.

On Tuesday, some of the fine lots were sold around Rs2,460 to Rs2,475 per maund and spinners feared further increase aided by reports of short crop.

But some others said reports of import of lint from India was the chief inhibiting factor behind the ginner’s move to unload long positions at the prevailing prices fearing further decline.

They said imports may not influence the local prices fuelled by a short crop and by the time Indian lint arrives, bulk of the local lint may have been purchased by the textile industry.

However, ginners said the imports should have been delayed up to January as by that time size of the crop and total mill intake would be known in the backdrop of 14 per cent decline in textile exports during the first half of the current season.

Official spot rates were, therefore, firmly held at the last level of Rs2,375 for average quality of lint well below those at which business was being transacted.

New York cotton futures on the other hand rose by 0.73 and 0.05 cents per lb for both the maturing December and the forward March contracts at 48.56 and 51.77 cents respectively.

Ready business was maintained on the higher side totalling about 30,000 bales as under:

SINDH VARIETY: 1,000 bales, Sanghar at Rs2,310 to Rs2,350, 1,000 bales, Tando Adam at Rs2,325 to Rs2,350, 1,000 bales, Shahdadpur at Rs2,375 and 400 bales, Nawabshah at Rs2,360.

PUNJAB TYPE: 5,000 bales, Bahawalpur, 7,000 bales, Rahimyar Khan, 3,000 bales each from Lodhran and Sadiqbad and 1,000 bales, Uch Sharif at Rs2,450, 2,000 bales, Alipur at Rs2,460, 1,200 bales, Gojra at Rs2,435 and 600 bales, Vehari at Rs2,400.