April 13, 2007	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 24, 1428

KARACHI, April 12: Cotton market on Thursday lacked normal trading interest as spinners and mills remained conspicuous by their absence owing partly to higher asking prices by the ginners.

Although brokerage houses did not report any fresh deals to the Karachi Cotton Association (KCA) some of the upcountry brokers claimed leading Punjab spinners lifted stray lots of fine quality from the southern Punjab ginneries around Rs2,800 per maund.

According to them leading mills and spinners were directly approaching ginners in the southern Punjab and were making deals with them, details of which are not immediately reported to their local partners.

However, indications are that ginners are not that enthusiastic sellers around the prevailing prices apparently awaiting fresh increase in coming weeks, they added.

“Ginners seem to be sitting pretty comfortable on their unsold stocks amid hopes of fresh flare-up after spinners resume their normal market operations,” cotton analysts said.

Meanwhile, reports reaching here from the lower Sindh cotton belt indicate that some of the growers have completed the sowing of the new crop, while others are close to complete it.

In the lower Sindh cotton belt sowing is resumed in late February owing to climatic conditions which suit to the early sown plants, market sources said.

But in the major cotton growing areas of the Sindh and the Punjab cotton belts farmers are preparing land for sowing, which they are expected to resume in late May and will complete by June 15, said to be an ideal weather for the cotton crop.

Official spot rates were again held unchanged at the overnight level of Rs2,725 in the absence of feedback from the ready section.

New York cotton futures on the other hand showed a modest recovery after several lean sessions and were quoted higher by 0.13 and 0.18 cents per lb at 51.82 and 53.60 cents per lb for both the ruling May and the forward July contracts respectively.