KARACHI, Jan 10: Cotton prices on Thursday modestly eased from the recent higher levels as mills slowed down their daily intake in an apparent effort to forestall fresh speculative rise, analysts said.

However, fine varieties with medium-to-long staple length, both from the upper Sindh and southern Punjab ginneries, were again traded around the peak level of Rs3,400 per maund, although the turnover was modest, they added.

Average quality lint changed hands between Rs3,250 and 3,300 per muand throughout the entire cotton belt as those holding bulk of the unsold stocks preferred holding on to their positions rather than lowering their asking prices.

New York cotton futures around 70-cent per lb seem to have changed the entire world cotton outlook on reports of global shortage and is creating problems for the end-product users, said a leading spinner, adding “the bad thing is that prices of finished textiles are not showing a sympathetic rise.”

“The last two days trading reflects that both the ginners and the spinners have taken positions on the price front, but the former appears to be in a better position owing to a short crop,” market sources said.

The next couple of sessions will show whether or not spinners have managed to contain speculative increase in prices or ginners will be on the winning side, they added.

They said even larger imports, which had also become expensive may not be in a position to ease the local prices as ginners are holding on to their unsold positions on the perception that supply and demand factors will eventually prevail.

Official spot rates were, however, again quoted unchanged at Rs3,200 per maund for an average quality lint.

The New York cotton futures on the other hand suffered fresh fall of 0.41 and 0.36 cents per lb at 69.02 and 70.71 cents per lb for both the ruling March and the distant May contracts, respectively.

About 20,000 bales changed hands as under:

SINDH TYPE: 1,000 bales, Shahdadpur at Rs3,250 to 3,310; 600 bales, Sanghar at 3,250 to 3,275; 400 bales, Kot Lalu and 1,000 bales, Nawabshah at 3,250 and 3,000 bales, Ghotki, Dharki and Mirpur Mathelo at 3,300 to 3,400.