August 04, 2007	Saturday	Rajab 19, 1428

KARACHI, Aug 3: Cotton market on Friday lacked normal trading interest as both buyers and sellers kept to the sidelines apparently having an overview of their respective parity levels.

The trading activity on the ready market remained slow due to higher asking prices by the ginners and the absence of leading spinners.

However, growers were not worried over the developing situation on the cotton front and were sitting pretty comfortable on their unsold stocks and were not inclined to sell them below Rs1,500 per 40 kg, floor brokers said.

“It is not clear how long the prevailing standoff on the price front will continue, but one thing is clear that growers are in the driving seat amid reports of a short crop and recent incidents of pest attack in the Punjab cotton belt,” said a leading broker.

Ginners said higher phutti rates Rs1,500 plus had made ginning operations more expensive, leaving no profit margin at the current price of lint as spinners were in no mood to go above Rs3,200 per maund for fine lint.

“Calculated at the current rate of phutti, the selling price of lint comes to above Rs3,300 per maund, which is much higher than the export parity level of the textile industry,” they said.

But some others said spinners were facing may problems on the export and liquidity fronts and were expected to play safe and may not take financial risks beyond their absorbing capacity.

Official spot rates were quoted unchanged at Rs3,000 per maund but in the ready section sellers were quoting much higher prices.

The New York cotton futures on the other hand rose further by 0.35 and 0.32 cents at 62.60 and 64.58 cents per lb for both the ruling October and forward December contracts respectively.

In physical trading the activity remained slow but some local brokers reported about 1,000 bales, from the central Sindh ginneries did change hands between Rs3,075 to Rs3,100 per muand respectively.

The following are Friday’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 3,000 50 3,050.00

Equivalent

40 kgs 3,212 50 3,262.00