December 15, 2006	Friday	Ziqa'ad 23, 1427

KARACHI, Dec 14: Brisk trading was witnessed on the cotton market on Thursday as spinner and mills were not in a mood to take a technical breather to have an overview of their inventories as lower crop ideas haunted them.

Another 30,000 bales changed hands around the overnight levels, which included some big-lots of 5,000 and 8,000 bales at the seasonal high level of Rs2,625, dealers said.

They said major thrust of leading cartel was on the southern Punjab lint, notably from Rahim Yar Khan and Sadiqabad, known for their best quality and fetched the highest price.

Ginners said unsold stocks of lint, which had soared to a record high level of 2.412m bales for the fortnight ended Dec 1, had now declined to a manageable limit reducing their financial burden.

“Leading ginners are in no hurry to lower their asking prices,” says a ginner, adding “parity levels are being maintained by them”.

But heavy daily turnover reflects that an average selling rate of Rs2,600 per maund for quality lint is in line with the spinners’ export parity level and both the growers and the ginners are claimed to be not the loser too.

Meanwhile, reports reaching here from the upper Sindh and southern Punjab ginneries indicate that arrivals of phutti have almost dried up and stray quantities of third picking is said to be arriving in some of the ginneries.

But some of the leading growers were still holding onto their unsold stocks anticipating price above Rs1,400 per 40 kg, ginners said. Spot rates were, therefore, again firmly held at the last level of Rs2,550.00 per maund in the ready section, but most of the deals were done well above them.

The New York cotton futures on the other hand showed divergent trend. Ruling March contract fell by 0.14 points at 54.34 cents while the forward May was quoted higher by 0.12 cents per lb at 55.50 cents per lb.

Ready off-take was on the higher side totalling 30,000 bales, the following being some of the notable deals:

SINDH TYPE: 1,000 bales, Shahdadpur at Rs2,490-2,525, 1,000 bales, upper Sindh at Rs2,600-2,625 and 400 bales, Dadu at Rs2,515.

PUNJAB VARIETY: 8,000 bales, Rahimyar Khan, 5,000 bales, Sadiqabad and 1,000 bales, upper Sindh at Rs2,600-2,625, 1,000 bales, each Ahmedpur East, Rajanpur, D.G.Khan, Lodhran, Khanpur, Muhammadpur Dewan and 2,000 bales and Bahawalpur at Rs2,600, 1,000 bales, Khanewal at Rs2,550-2,600, and 1,000 bales, Sahiwal at Rs2,500.