January 12, 2007	Friday	Zilhaj 21, 1427

KARACHI, Jan 11: Physical business on the cotton market on Thursday remained slow as spinners were not inclined to oblige ginners who had raised their asking prices. Some of the leading ginners from the southern Punjab cotton belt and upper Sindh were said to be asking Rs2,600 per maund for the fine lots, floor brokers said.

“But spinners instead riding bandwagon, played safe and kept to the sidelines awaiting fresh developments on the cotton front,” they said, adding “the continued fall in New York cotton futures has raised hopes among the spinners that import could be competitive in the coming weeks”.

But leading spinners and mills were awaiting the official reaction to their demand to allow lint import from surplus India, which is claimed to be competitive around the current levels.

Already, some of the leading spinners had signed deals for the import of about half a million bales from Indian exporters but they demanded imports through Wagha border rather than by sea, market sources said.

The ministry of commerce was apparently awaiting the final crop figure as the current arrivals were far below the official revised target of 12.5m bales, they added.

They said indications were that the government would allow specific quantity of lint from India after having a fair idea of the supply gap.

It was in this background that official spot rates were firmly held at the last level of Rs2.500 per maund.

New York cotton futures on the other hand fell further by 0.17 and 0.22 cents at 53.93 and 54.75 cents per lb for both the ruling March and the forward May contracts respectively.

Although some of the spinners were buyers below Rs2,600 per maund but no business could be finalised owing to price differentials between sellers and the buyers.