KARACHI, Aug 21: Cotton market on Tuesday showed firm trend as ginners raised their asking prices further higher followed by reports of a considerable fall in arrivals of phutti from the growers.
The cotton trade appears to have slipped into the hands of speculative forces, which are all along trying to keep the initiative in their hand after spreading various rumours about the pest attack and size of the crop, market sources said.
Floor brokers said leading growers are holding on to their unsold stocks of phutti in an apparent effort to push prices to pre-reaction level of Rs1,600 to 1,700 per maund from the current Rs1,500.
Late last week prices of both phutti and lint had fallen to Rs1,400 and 2,900 despite reports of a massive pest attack in some areas of the Punjab cotton belt after official indicated to allow import of lint from India via the overland route.
But as the growers held on to their phutti stocks for the last couple of sessions, prices again rebounded from the recent lows as mill demand picked up.
Both the Sindh and the Punjab types are now being sold around Rs3,100 and 3,200 per maund depending on quality of lint.
“No one could deny the fact that the crop is short and could keep prices on the higher side throughout the current season,” said a leading ginner adding” even import of about 2 to 3m bales may not affect the current price line.”
Floor brokers said spinners and mills having a breather on the price front are again at the receiving end and are not very optimistic about achieving the export target of $14 billion set for the textiles.
Official spot rates were firmly held at the overnight level of Rs.2,950 per maund but in physical trading most of the deals were finalised well above them.
Mills’ ready off-take was on the higher side totaling about 8,000 bales, the following being some of the notable deals:
SINDH VARIETY: 1,000 bales, each Tando Adam and Shahdadpur at Rs3,100, 1,000 bales, Sanghar at Rs3,080 to 3,100, 600 bales, Khipro at 3,100 and 200 bales, Mirpurkhas at 3,075.
PUNJAB TYPE: 400 bales, each Arifwala, Burewala and Pak Pattan at Rs3.200.
