November 23, 2006	Thursday	Ziqa'ad 1, 1427

KARACHI, Nov 22: Trading activity on the cotton market was fairly active as spinners and mills continued to build up long positions at the current rates.

Another 30,000 bales changed hands, mostly from the Punjab cotton belt as spinners are seeking supplies of fine lots to produce higher counts of cotton yarn and cloth.

Unlike the previous sessions, some weakness was witnessed in some of the central Punjab ginners, who lowered their asking prices followed by reports of larger unsold stock of over 2m bales and fears of hasty selling by some of the leading ones, market sources said.

But some others attributed the fall in prices to quality premiums rather than hasty selling any of the ginners as fine lots from the southern Punjab ginneries were again sold around Rs2,475.

Floor brokers said the prevailing supply and demand factors would continue to guide the future market trend, including prices but the general perception is that prices may stay around the current level owing to a short crop in Sindh.

The next couple of weeks may be very crucial for the market trend as by the middle of December the size of the crop would be fully known that will have a bearing on the future price structure, they added.

Although mill buying has picked up during the last couple of weeks but it is still far below the normal intake at this time of the season as was reflected by larger unsold stocks, they said.

Official spot rates were, therefore, firmly held at the last levels in line with average quality lint from the Sindh ginneries.

New York cotton futures on the other hand showed fractional rise of 0.10 and 0.44 cents at 46.80 and 51.63 cents per lb for both the maturing December and the forward March contracts, respectively.

The following are details of some of the notable deals gone through in the ready section:

SINDH VARIETY: 2,000 bales, Sanghar at Rs2,300 to 2,350, 1,000 bales, Khairpur at 2,400, 1,000 bales, Gothki, Dharki and Mirpur Mathelo at 2,475, 800 bales, Nawabshah at Rs2,340 to 2,375 and 500 bales, Shahpur Chakar at Rs2,340 to 2,350.

PUNJAB TYPE: 2,000 bales each Bahawalpur, Alipur, Rahimyar Khan, Sadiqabad, Ahmedpur East, 1,000 bales, each Shujabad, Jalalpur, Rajanpur, and Muhammadpur Dewan at Rs2,475, 1,000 bales, Sahiwal at 2,420, 1,000 bales, Garma Raja at 2,415, 1,000 bales, Muridwala at 2,445 and 1,000 bales, D.G.Khan at 2,450 to 2,475.