November 22, 2007	Thursday	Ziqa’ad 11, 1428

KARACHI, Nov 21: Panic mill buying was witnessed on the cotton market on Wednesday as spinners and mills grab the floating stock amid a briskly traded session.

It was perhaps most of active session during the current season as about 50,000 bales including some big deals changed hands at an average rate of Rs3,250, floor brokers said.

Some of the low grade lots both from the Sindh and the Punjab cotton belts were sold between Rs3,175 to Rs3,200 per maund.

“As the price ideas of both the sellers and the buyers matched, the market went through a hectic session,” they said, adding “but the interesting feature was that spinners had some compulsion of the situation followed by reports of a short crop, ginners did not”.

Why the ginners were in haste was not clear as they had many good reasons to hold on to their unsold stocks at least for the near-term on the basis of a short crop, market sources said.

There was a perception and which was shared by some leading ginners that weak New York cotton future prices could have a negative impact on the local prices in the coming sessions making import of lint competitive, they said.

Moreover, some softening in prices of phutti as a section of growers sold their unsold stocks at the lower rates which in turn allowed ginners to clear the backlog at a uniform rate of Rs3,250 per maund, they added.

Some of the private sector exporters sold their stocks to spinners as it was more profitable to sell to mills rather than exporting them.

Official spot rates were again firmly held at the last level, while in the ready section most of the deals were done well above them.

New York cotton futures on the other hand showed fractional changes, while the ruling December contract showed a fractional rise of 0.3 cents per lb at 60.06 cents and forward March fell by 0.10 cents per lb at 65.52 cents.

Ready off-take was fairly large, the following being some of the notable deals.

SINDH TYPE: 1,000 bales, Shahdadpur and 200 bales, Sultanabad at Rs3,150, 2,300 bales, mill to spinners and 3,000 bales Khairpur at Rs3,200.

PUNJAB VARIETY: 4,000 bales, Ahmedpur East, 1,000 bales, each Fazalpur, Qutubour, Khanewal, Jampur, Sadiqabad, 2,000 bales, Shujaabad, Basti Malook, Jalalpur and Khanpur at Rs3,250, 5,000 bales, Bahawalnagar at Rs3,225 to Rs3,250, 1,600 bales, Chichawatni at Rs3,175 to Rs32,25 and 1,400 bales, Bahawalpur at Rs3,200-3,250.

The following are Wednesday’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 3,175 50 3,225

Equivalent

40 kgs 3,403 50 3,453