KARACHI, April 28: Cotton market finished the weekend session on a cheerless note as spinners and mills remained conspicuous by their absence apparently awaiting fresh developments on the export front.
Ready off-take remained at low ebb despite the fact that some of the ginners have lowered their asking prices to clear the backlog of unsold stocks, floor brokers said.
“No one could deny the fact that spinners and mills have still to go a long way to cover their annual consumption requirements of lint, problems on the export front and falling local yarn prices have forced them to stay on the sidelines,” they added.
According to textile sources some of the leading ginners, who are still short of their annual lint needs, have signed forward deals with the foreign exporters and stray consignments against them are already arriving.
The actual figures about the forward deals are not available from the official sources but some leading spinners say import contracts for a bout 0.2m bales had been signed with a number of exporters.
But some others said some of the spinners have made fresh forward deals with the foreign suppliers after the recent decline in New York cotton futures below the 50 cent per lb mark.
Market sources said both the spinners and the ginners are awaiting the release of final crop figures due in the first week of next month, which in their opinion will set the future market trend and final import needs of the industry.
Meanwhile, both spinners hope for better crop figures during the next crop season, sowing for which will be resumed next month as the government has allowed the sowing of high-yielding B.T. cottonseed.
According to official sources a new B.T. crop could increase per acre production of phutti by 100 per cent, they said.
Official spot rates did not show any change and were quoted at the overnight level of Rs2,700.
New York cotton futures on the other hand showed a fractional rise of 0.20 and 0.01 cents per lb at 47.90 and 50 cents for both the ruling May and the distant July contracts, respectively.
On the ready counter, brokers did not report any fresh deal both from the Sindh and the Punjab cotton belts.
