September 30, 2007	Sunday	Ramazan 17, 1428

KARACHI, Sept 29: Firm trading conditions were again witnessed on the cotton market on Saturday as spinners and mills demonstrated in more than one ways that they were willing buyer of any quantity of lint at the current rates.

But in a surprise move, the KCA rate committee represented by all the sector of cotton trade has revised downward official spot rates by Rs50 per maund, while in physical trading lint prices showed tendency to rise on strong mill buying, ginners said.

Some brokers said it appears to be a belated action to match the decline after lint prices dropped below Rs3,000 to Rs2,775 a couple of weeks earlier.

Through out the session till late in the evening all the lots offered by the ginners from the entire cotton belt were readily lifted by them at rates ranging from Rs2,850 to Rs2,900 per maund depending on the quality of lint, floor brokers said.

Although official figures were not readily available leading brokers based in city reported about another 40,000 bales changed hands as mills were not inclined to take risk against their forward sales to various countries, they said.The interesting feature was that Sindh type was again sold at premium of Rs25 to Rs50 per maund as compared to its Punjab counterpart in line with quality, they added.

“I presume spinners and mills have a fair idea of the future price outlook,” said a cotton analyst, adding “from few weeks now, it may not be that cheaper and will get expensive thanks to demand and supply mechanism”.

The prevailing scramble to corner the entire floating stock below Rs3,000 per maund is reflective of this perception, he said, adding “the effort aims at keeping the export pipeline of textile liquid all the time”.

Most of the spinners were not carried away by the Friday’s steep decline in New York cotton futures as it was the outcome of speculative trading and they could rebound the very next day.

New York cotton futures on Friday fell by 1.62 and 1.67 cents at 62.05 and 65.00 cents per lb for both the ruling October and the forward December contracts respectively.

Meanwhile, phutti arrivals into the ginneries are said to be on the higher side as growers seem to have decided not to hold long unsold positions in a volatile market.

The following notable deals were reported on Saturday evening:

SINDH TYPE: 2,100 bales, Shahdadpur, 1,400 bales, Tando Adam, 800 bales, Sarhari, 1,000 bales each Nawabshah and Shahpur Chakar at Rs2,900, 1,000 bales, Sanghar at Rs2,875 to Rs2,900 and 600 bales, Mirpurkhas at Rs2,875.

PUNJAB VARIETY: 1,000 bales, Chistian at Rs2,850 to Rs2,900, 600 bales, Burewala at Rs2,875 to Rs2,900, 400 bales, each Chichawatni and Sahiwal at Rs2,875 and 600 bales, Khanewal at Rs2,900.