July 04, 2007	Wednesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 18, 1428

KARACHI, July 3: Dull trading conditions prevailed on the cotton market on Tuesday as spinners and mills kept to the sidelines most of the time owing to higher asking prices by the ginners.

Although there are no official reports about the damage to the new crop in the recent rain and flash floods in the lower and central Sindh cotton, unofficial reports reaching here from the interior indicate that the crop was damaged in some of the areas but it is too early to say about the damaged acreage, floor brokers said.

The current spell of monsoon rain in the Punjab cotton belt was in line with the needs of the crop at this stage and was well-absorbed but fear of floods in the D.G.Khan cotton growing areas as all the rivers including Sindh are said to be in high floods could cause damage to the crop there, they said.

However, having an eye on supply and demand factors, some of the ginners holding on to their unsold stock of about 30,000 bales have raised their asking prices in anticipating of panic mill buying, market sources said.

The ginners are further encouraged to raise their asking prices by reports that the some of their counterparts managed to sell fine lots at Rs3,000.00 per maund, they said.

But some floor brokers said some of the spinners, who were in short supply remained active buyers and some of them managed to buy about 2,000 bales between Rs2,850 to Rs2,900 from some of the Punjab ginners, they added.

World cotton prices also stayed on the higher side, which in turn have sympathetic impact on the local prices. The ruling October contract was quoted modestly higher by 0.15 cents per lb at 61.65, while the maturing July fell by 0.50 cents per lb at 56 cents.

Local official spot rates were again held unchanged at the last level of Rs2,650 per maund, although some of the deals were done well above them.

Some of the leading brokers said about 2,000 bales from the southern Punjab ginneries changed hands but details were not available.