KARACHI, Dec 18: Cotton prices on Tuesday remained stable around the overnight levels amid a moderately traded session followed by release of latest data on phutti arrivals by the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA).

A total of 8.350m bales arrived in the ginneries during the last fortnight ending December 15 as against 10.228m bales over the corresponding period last year, showing a sharp fall of 1.7 million bales reinforcing the ginners’ perception of fresh increase in cotton prices, said a leading floor broker.

Much of the fall was again witnessed in the central Sindh cotton belt, while in southern Punjab the crop condition was a bit better, market sources said.

“The decline in lint production has put the spinners and mills in a real crisis situation having negative fallout on the textile exports,” he said, adding “not only the lint would be more expensive in the coming weeks but also need more funds to support the massive imports”.

Ginners were worried over the larger unsold stock which swelled to 2.211m bales from the previous fortnight’s 1.635m bales. But some others said “it is a blessing in disguise for them as they will sell them at higher prices after Eid holidays”.

How the market will react to the fresh fall in phutti arrivals will be known in post-holiday trading but one thing appears certain that supply and demand factors will figure prominently, said a leading ginner.

“The are higher world prices of cotton could create more problems for the textile sector as importers of the finished products are not inclined to sign fresh deals owing to price differentials,” said a cotton analyst.

For the fourth session in a row, official spot rates were again quoted at the last levels amid slow ready off-take.

New York cotton futures on the other hand showed fractional fall of 0.20 and 0.10 cents at 65.65 and 67.12 cents per lb for both the ruling March and forward May contracts, respectively.

Mill ready off-take was on the lower side of the daily turnover and totalled 7,000 bales, the following being some of the notable deals.

SINDH TYPE: 3,000 bales, Shahdadpur at Rs3,075 to Rs3,100, 1,400 bales Jhole and 1,300 bales, Tando Adam at Rs3,100.