January 13, 2008	Sunday	Muharram 03, 1429

KARACHI, Jan 12: Cotton market on Saturday maintained firm trend as prices were quoted higher by Rs50 per maund amid a moderately traded session.

The market was expected to further heat up next week in sympathy with limit-gain in New York cotton futures just at the heels of Friday’s below ceiling fall.

Both the ruling March and the forward May settlements were traded higher by 3.00 cents per lb at 69.96 and 71.64 cents respectively on strong speculative buying aided by reports of forward covering purchases made by some of the major consumer countries, market sources said.

Spinners and mills who were anticipating a fall in prices after Thursday’s modest pruning were worried over the new world cotton scenario that could aggravate the local supply position followed by another price flare-up, they said.

After having imported about 1.4m bales to make the crop shortfall, the local industry may face several problems on both the cost of production and the export parity fronts, said a leading spinner.

“Export contracts signed by spinners and the mills for the quarter ending March 31 may need upward revision of agreed rates in line with the current price flare-up,” some others said.

Unlike the overnight session, most of the deals in the ready section were finalised between Rs3,300 to Rs3,400 per maund as ginners raised their asking prices even for the inferior types, dealers said.

“If the New York cotton futures did not react from the current peak levels during next week, local lint may witness an identical rise in prices,” said a broker.

However, the official spot rates were held unchanged at Rs3,200 per maund but in physical trading most of the deals were done at Rs100 to Rs200 per maund higher rates.

Mill ready off-take was relatively lower owing to higher asking prices and totalled about 15,000 bales as under:

SINDH VARIETY: 5,000 bales, Gothki, Daharki, Mirpur Mathelo at Rs3,350 to Rs3,400 and 400 bales, Khipro at Rs3,250.

PUNJAB TYPE: 3,000 bales, Rahimyar Khan at Rs3,350 to Rs3,400, 2,000 bales, Sadiqabad at Rs3,300 to Rs3,400 and 2,400 bales, Liaquatpur at Rs3,300 to Rs3,400.