December 21, 2006	Thursday	Ziqa'ad 29, 1427

KARACHI, Dec 20: After last couple of weeks’ hectic activity on the cotton market, physical trading on Wednesday showed a considerable slowdown as leading spinners and mills kept to the sidelines for no apparent adverse news.

Modest lots, however, did change hands at rates linked to quality of lint and fluctuated between Rs2,500-2,625 per maund for both inferior and fine lots respectively.

Unlike the previous session, the interesting feature was that most of the lots came in for trading were of retail nature and there was no big-deal, which reflected the absence of leading spinners and mills.

Floor brokers said there was no apparent reason behind the absence of leading spinners excepting stock taking before resuming new year buying.

But some others said delivery problem was the chief reason behind the slowdown as cargo haulers had raised their freight rates and some of them were busy in transporting sacrificial animals, they said.

“There could be buying flutters here and there ahead of eid holidays but the market is expected to resume normal trading after eid,” said a leading spinner, adding “higher fares will increase the overhead costs to expensive lint”.

Moreover, spinners and mills are not worried over the near-by supplies as 2.2 million bales are still lying in the ginners’ godowns and fresh arrivals will add to the total.

Meanwhile, private sector exporters have registered export contracts of both old and new crop with the Export Promotion Bureau totalling about 0.1m bales up to Dec 15, 2006, against which 55,000 bales have been physically shipped so far to various ports.

Official spot rates resisted fresh fall and were firmly held unchanged at the overnight level of Rs2,525 per maund.

New York cotton futures on the other hand showed fresh modest rise of 0.22 and 0.25 cents at 55.08 and 56.00 cents per lb for both the ruling March and the distant May contracts respectively.

Ready off-take was light totalling about 10,000 bales as under:

SINDH VARIETY: 1,000 bales, Khairpur at Rs2,500 and 1,200 bales, upper Sindh at Rs2,625.

PUNJAB TYPE: 1,000 bales, Chistian at Rs2,525, 200 bales, Rahimyar Khan, 400 bales, Sadiqabad, 500 bales, Ahmedpur East and 600 bales, Bahawalpur at Rs2,600 and 500 bales, Sahiwal at Rs2,475.