June 22, 2007	Friday	Jamadi-us-Sani 06, 1428

KARACHI, June 21: Trading on the cotton market on Thursday turned bullish as spinners and mills indulged in panic-buying to corner the floating stock of fine lots from the Punjab cotton belt.

“Ginners who were awaiting their return to the market were in no mood to oblige them and raised their asking prices by about Rs200 per maund,” said a leading floor broker, adding “those who are short of stocks to cover their forward textile sales have no option but the oblige them”.

As a result, two big deals of over 2,000 bales of Punjab lint were finalised at the season’s peak level of Rs2,800 per maund, they said and added that prices could rise further as the unsold stocks were too low to meet even a part of the spinner demand.

The lint market is victim of a short crop and is now ruled by the ginners who still hold an unsold stock of about 80,000 bales mostly in Punjab ginneries, market sources said.

“If the imported consignments are not arrived well in time, the local market may further heat up in the coming weeks as the market has now slipped into the hands of ginners,” they added.

Ginners had been under pressure despite a short crop for the last couple of weeks as spinners and mills kept to the sidelines most of the time and made only stray buying to keep prices within their parity levels and so far they managed to hold the price line, some others said.

They said the steep rise in New York cotton futures which rose by limit-gain of 2.50 cents per lb at 59.70 cents for the ruling October contract was an contributing aiding factor behind local price flare-up.

The New York new crop October contract at one stage broke the barrier of 60.00 cents at 60.10, sending bullish signals the world over including Pakistan as was reflected by sharp rise in prices. The maturing July settlement was quoted higher by 1.45 cents per lb at 55.75 cents.

There was, however, no change in the official spot rates at Rs2,600 per maund.

Ready offtake was light totalling about 5,000 bales of both the new and the old crops as under:

NEW CROP SINDH: 200 bales, Sultanabad at Rs2,525.

CURRENT CROP: 1,000 and 1,100 bales, Shujabad and Tiba Sultanpur at Rs2,800, 300 bales, Dharki at Rs2,550 and 400 bales, mill-to-mill at Rs2,400.

The following are Thursday’s new crop Karachi Cotton Association (KCA) official spot rates for local dealings in Pak rupees for base grade 3 staple length 1-1/32” micronair value between 3.8 to 4.9 NCL.

Rate for Ex-Gin Price Up-country Spot rate

Expenses Ex-Karachi

37.324 kgs 2,600 50 2,650.00

Equivalent

40 kgs 2,786 50 2,836.00