June 14, 2007	Thursday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 28, 1428

KARACHI, June 13: Cotton market on Wednesday showed steady trend as some of the deals in new crop were finalised at the higher rates depending on the delivery period, brokers said.

However, there was no immediate impact of the budget on the cotton trade as was reflected by the absence of spinners and mills from the market, they said.

Floor brokers said it was speculated prior to the announcement of the budget that widely speculated textile package would boost trading on the cotton market but the standoff between the ginners and spinners on the price tag continued.

“We have not bigger unsold stock of lint, which could be purchased by the spinners just in a session, their continued absence from the market or choppy buying here and there do worry us,” said a ginner.

Although the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) is yet to announce the final crop figure, ginners said, adding it may not be more than 0.125m bales but mostly of fine quality.

Spinners were opting for imports as they needed about 2m bales to make up the local crop shortfall and “it is big job to procure it at competitive rates,” market sources said.

Some of the leading spinners were making deals in new crop both from the lower Sindh and the central Punjab cotton belts which would be available at much lower rates around Rs2,500 or slightly above by the next month or early August, they said.

Official spot rates were, therefore, firmly held at the last level of Rs2,600 per maund but some exporter-to-mill deals were done well above them.

New York cotton futures on the other hand were quoted higher by 0.60 and 0.25 cents per lb for both the ruling July and the distant October contracts at 51.80 and 55.40 cents respectively.

The following are some of the deals done in the ready section: 2,000 bales, new crop, Sultanabad at Rs2,505 for

July-August delivery and 200 bales, exporter-to-mill at Rs2,600 per maund.