KARACHI, Oct 26: Cotton market on Friday showed bullish trend as prices were quoted further higher by Rs50 per maund amid conflicting reports about the damage to the crop in the Punjab cotton belt by the late pest attack.
Most of the deals were done between Rs3,000 and Rs3,050 per maund. Punjab lint was sold at premium of Rs50 per maund over its Sindh conterpart. But there is no official word on the damage but some cotton analysts fear that the idea of a short crop may have been originated from some of the speculative traders.
They apparently based their perception on the orderly price rise and there was no speculative rise, which in similar conditions is the normal outcome, they said.
There was no panic buying by the spinners and mills as they appeared to be pretty sure about the size of the crop through their own private surveys and latest figures released by the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association at 2.7m bales plus, they added.
There was a loud whispering in the market that the phutti arrivals may show a considerable decline after early season glut was over as some of the growers having a little holding capacity tried to flood the ginneries, said a broker.
The crop position will be known by early December as by that time picking operations of phutti in the entire cotton belt will be completed and bulk of the phutti will have reached the ginneries, they added.
Official spot rates were revised upward by Rs50 per maund. In physical trading most of the deals were done well above them.
New York cotton futures also recovered from the overnight lows and were quoted higher by 0.57 and 0.72 cents per lb at 64.39 and 68.88 cents for both the ruling December and the forward March contracts respectively.
The following notable deals in the ready section were reported on Friday evening:
SINDH TYPE: 600 bales, Sanghar at Rs2,975 to Rs3,000, 400 bales each Tando Adam, Shahpur Chakar, 200 bales, Daur and 600 bales, Khipro at Rs3,000.
PUNJAB VARIETY: 600 bales, Rahimyar Khan, 400 bales, Sadiqabad, 600 bales, Jahania at Rs3,025, 1,000 bales, each Fazalpura, Bhakhar and Ahmedpur East, 800 bales, Hasilpur, 600 bales, DG Khan and 400 bales, Bahawalpur at Rs3,050.
