April 27, 2007	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 09, 1428

KARACHI, April 26: Cotton prices on Thursday eased modestly from the recent higher level as some of the ginners tried to get out of the market after a long wait, analysts said.

Some of the ginners holding to their unsold positions for the last about two months amid hopes of an imminent price flare-up based on a short crop got jittery and sold in a bit haste as spinners and mills did not indulge in panic buying, they added.

The other negative factor behind ginners’ current bearish mood was lint selling by the local spinners and private sector exporters who found it more profitable than spinning or exporting it, said a leading broker.

Thus after a long wait for better prices, ginners finally bowed down to spinner tactical moves and sold at a lower rates but not in panic after having lost hopes of further increase in prices, he said.

Floor brokers said although the arrival of the new crop from the lower Sindh ginneries was still far away, forward deals in it at the lower levels have a negative impact on the holding capacity of the ginners on fears of fresh fall in prices.

“The cotton trade is now moving in spinners’ way,” they said, adding “prices may fall further from the current higher level of Rs2,700 but a modest easing is around”.

After remaining static for the last four weeks, official spot rates were lowered by Rs25 per maund at Rs2,700 but some of the deals were done well below them depending on quality.

New York cotton futures on the other hand staged a modest recovery and were quoted higher by 0.22 and 0.51 cents at 48.90 and 51.23 cents per lb for both the ruling May and the forward July settlements.

Ready offtake was modest as under: 3,000 bales, Khairpur at Rs2,600 to Rs2,625, 2,000 bales from Punjab mill-to-mill at Rs2,765 and 600 bales, exporter-to-mill at Rs2,750.