June 17, 2007	Sunday	Jumadi-us-Sani 01, 1428

KARACHI, June 16: Lint prices on the cotton market remained stable, but mill ready offtake was on the lower side of the daily average owing to higher asking prices by the ginners.

Ginners from the southern Punjab cotton belt, who hold bulk of the unsold stock, however appear to be in no hurry to dispose of their holding on retail basis, brokers said.

According to market sources they were holding about 0.125m bales from the current crop and were firmly stick to their unsold positions apparently in an effort to get better price at the fag-end of the season.

“The standoff between the ginner and the spinner on the price issue may continue during the current season owing to a short crop,” market source said, adding “spinners have already tried more than one psychological depressant to outwit them but have failed so far”.

The sudden surge in world demand for US cotton seems to have fuelled the current sympathetic price flare-up elsewhere and the local ginners have found the cue for the future cotton outlook, they added.

The New York cotton futures are steadily heading towards the benchmark of 60 cents per lb and could have fresh sympathetic impact on prices around the world in the coming weeks, they said.

Meanwhile, reports reaching here from the major cotton growing areas indicate that sowing of the new crop has been completed but in some areas re-sowing is being done where the early sown tender plant were damaged by the extremely hot weather.

Official spot rates were again firmly held at the last level of Rs2,600 per maund in the absence of any feedback from the ready section.

New York cotton futures on the other hand posted a fresh rise of 0.92 and 0.82 cents per lb at 54.92 and 57.90 cent for both the ruling July and the new crop October settlements respectively.

Although some brokers reported stray ready business totalling about 1,500 bales, but no deal was reported by them to the Karachi Cotton Association.