April 11, 2008	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 4, 1429

KARACHI, April 10: Active trading was witnessed on the cotton market on Thursday as spinners made near-panic buying amid fears of an imminent price flare-up.

The credence to spinners fears was given by Thursday’s rebound staged by the New York cotton futures partly on speculative trade buying and partly to revival of foreign demand, which sent bullish signals elsewhere, notably in those countries which had harvested short crop and are net importers of lint, market sources said.

The bullish signals were promptly picked by local spinners and mills as was reflected by near-panic ready off-take of about 20,000 bales, including some fine lots, they said.

After several lean sessions, a lot of business was witnessed, notably in fine lots from the southern Punjab ginneries, including a single lot of 6,000 bales at Rs3,350 to Rs3,500 per maund, they added.

The notable feature was that most of the fine lots were traded between Rs3,500 and Rs3,550, indicating that ginners are in a commanding position as far as the future price outlook is concerned.

“Spinners and mills have been keeping a judicious balance between the ruling prices and their export parity levels for the last couple of weeks,” said an analyst, adding “now the price line is steadily slipping away from their tight grip.”It was perhaps in this background that after several sessions, the official spot rates were revised upward by Rs25 per maund at Rs3,325.

New York cotton futures were quoted higher by 1.91 and 1.75 cents per lb at 73.85 and 77.24 cents for both the ruling May and the new crop July contracts, respectively.

Mills ready off-take was on the higher side amounting to about 20,000 bales, and the following were some of the notable deals: 1,000 bales, each Samandri, and Vehari and 400 bales, Tiba Sultanpur at Rs3,550; 600 bales, Lodhran at Rs3,500; 2,600 bales, Rajanpur at Rs3,250 to Rs3,350; 400 bales, Nurpur at Rs3,350; 1,000 bales, Bahawalpur at Rs3,050 to Rs3,300 and 400 and 800 bales, upper Sindh at Rs3,400.