KARACHI, April 5: Cotton market maintained a bullish outlook on Saturday on the perception that a fall of over a million bales in the total crop could trigger panic mill buying in the coming weeks.

Ginners hope an unsold stock of 0.9m bales, in a short crop of 10.338m bales, could trigger panic mill buying in the coming weeks causing prices to further rise from the current levels but their thinking may prove wrong keeping in view the ground realities, market sources said.

“After having imported well over 3m bales of lint from various sources, notably from India, spinners and mills may not be that worried about the future supplies as being speculated by some quarters,” said a cotton analyst.

However, spinners may prefer the local stuff in the backdrop of higher world prices but will try to keep prices within the current levels after having regulated their daily intake by a consensus, he added.

But in any case the sailing for the textile sector may not be that smooth as a massive import bill and higher prices would continue to haunt them until the new crop arrives, some others said.

Although prices of cotton yarn on the local ancillary market are said to be fairly steady, problems on the export front, owing to higher cost of inputs and tough competition from the other producers, continues to take their toll, they said.

Meanwhile, reports of shortage of irrigation water in the lower Sindh belt, where the crop is sown in February and early March, is said to have been further delayed as the problem of water still remains unresolved, they added.

Official spot rates were held unchanged at Rs3,300 per maund but on the other hand New York cotton futures rose further higher by 0.45 and 0.47 cents per lb at 70.86 and 74.32 for both the ruling May and distant July contracts, respectively.

Mills ready off-take was on the lower side as ginners and spinners awaited the negative fallout of a short crop on the ruling prices.

The following are some of the lots, which changed hands: 200 bales, Shahdadpur at Rs3,400, 2,000 bales, Khanpur at Rs3,450 to Rs3,500 and 1,000 bales, Liaquatpur at Rs3,400.