November 22, 2006	Wednesday	Shawwal 29, 1427

KARACHI, Nov 21: Cotton prices on Tuesday rose further as ginners were not deterred by higher unsold stocks and indulged in selective unloadings, local brokers said.

But on the other hand spinners and mills were not inclined to sit on the sidelines despite reports of revised higher crop figures around 12.7m bales and continued to make fresh commitments apparently on the perception that there could be pressure on ready supplies at the fag-end of season, they added.As a result, Punjab variety was traded at uniform rate of Rs2,475 per maund and about 20,000 bales, including some big lots changed hands around this level.

Ginners said leading spinners and mills seem to have larger forward export sales for the quarter ending Dec 31, 2006 and are out to cover their positions irrespective of the price tag.

But some others said prices could ease from this level as some of the ginners with little holding capacity may opt for selling to meet their payment demands to the growers against unfixed phutti.

However, larger daily mill off-take reflects that the prevailing lint prices are in line with the spinners export parity levels and they are not inclined to take even a technical breather.

The latest mill buying around 4.674m bales is on the lower side of the previous comparable figures as both spinners and mills did not indulge in panic buying to forestall any price flare-up, brokers said.

Official spot rates were, therefore, marked up by Rs25 at Rs2,425 per maund but most of the deals were done well above them.

Now York cotton futures on the other hand turned mixed and while maturing December fell by 0.50 cents per lb at 46.90, forward March showed a fractional rise of 0.04 cents at 51.19 per lb.

Mill ready off-take was on the higher side totalling about 25,000 bales as under:

SINDH VARIETY: 1,000 bales, Sanghar at Rs2,300-2,325, 1,000 bales, Tando Adam at Rs2,300-2,350 and 400 bales, Sultanabad at Rs2,385.

PUNJAB TYPE: 2,000 bales each Bahawalpur, Ahmedpur East, Muridpur Dewan, Khanpur, Rahimyar Khan and Sadiqabad at Rs2,475, 1,000 bales, each Alipur, D.G.Khan, Rajanpur, Multan and Liaquatpur also at Rs2,475 per maund.