KARACHI, Sept 20: Brisk trading activity was witnessed on the cotton market on Thursday as spinners and mills lifted all the lots offered for sale by the ginners at the prevailing prices.

About 20,000 bales mainly from the central Sindh and Punjab cotton belt changed hands at a uniform rate of slightly below Rs2,900 per maund with the former variety again sold at a premium of Rs25, floor brokers said.

“The strong daily physical activity in the ready section indicates that both the buyers and sellers have reached a consensus point where both are the gainers,” analysts said, adding “unlike the previous seasons when one of them used to be a loser, and the negative fallout of the active dealing is perhaps passed on to the grower”.

According to market sources higher arrivals of phutti into the Punjab ginneries and higher crop ideas, the grower is at the receiving end and selling his phutti at the lower rates as compared to Sindh.

They said based on the current arrivals of phutti, the total crop in the Punjab was expected to be higher by half a million bales above the original target and that could keep prices stable around the current levels.

An idea of phutti glut in the Punjab cotton belt may well be had from the fact that some of the Sindh ginners are purchasing Punjab phutti at a discount of Rs100 per maund and are processing it into lint to sell it at higher rates, they said.

In previous normal crop seasons central Punjab ginners purchased lower Sindh phutti to resume ginning operations well before picking of phutti starts there, they added.

Official spot rates were again firmly held at the overnight level of Rs2,800 per maund but in the ready section most of the deals were done well above them.

New York cotton futures on the other hand came in for active profit-selling and were quoted lower by 0.92 and 0.93 cents per lb for both the ruling October and the forward December contracts at 61.33 and 63.92 cents respectively.

The mills ready off-take was on the higher side, some of the notable deals being as under:

SINDH VARIETY: 800 bales each, Khipro, Sultanabad and Sarhari, 1,000 bales, Sanghar at Rs2,875 to Rs2,900, 1,600 bales, Tando Adam at Rs2,885 to Rs2,900, 2,000 bales, Shahdadpur at Rs2,890 to Rs2,900 and 1,400 bales, Mirpurkhas at Rs2,875.