April 26, 2008	Saturday	Rabi-us-Sani 19, 1429

KARACHI, April 25: Cotton prices on the Karachi Cotton Exchange on Friday were revised upward by Rs50 per maund for an average quality, but spinners did not show any reaction and kept to the sidelines.

In the ready section, however, some of the spinners lifted modest number of bales of fine lint from the upper Sindh ginneries at Rs3,600 per maund amid market talk of further pressure on supplies as well as prices, market sources said.

But reports of world cotton markets tell a different story where prices are easing each session for the last couple of sessions, partly owing to falling demand from major consumers, notably from China and partly to higher US new crop projections, they added.

New York cotton futures on Friday were further marked down by 2.17 cents and 1.95 cents per lb for both the ruling May and the new crop July contracts at 68.62 and 72.13 cents, respectively.

The fall of the May contract below or that of new crop July could create many problems for the local textile industry on the export front as spinners have purchased lint at much higher rates, well above 70 cent per lb.

The perception that if textile industry’s foreign competitors get the lint at cheaper rates, that is below 70 cents, they could market textiles at much lower rates in the coming months creating problems for spinners, the sources said.

According to figures released by an official agency, spinners and mills imported more than 4.1 million bales from July 2007 to April one.

The figures show that industry needs no more lint at least for the current season.

Together with the local production of 11 million bales plus, the total availability of lint is billed at 5.2 million bales, said a cotton analyst, Naseem Usman.

The official spot rates were quoted higher by Rs50 after several sessions at Rs3,350 but in the ready section most of the deals were done well above them.

The following were some of the deals late on Friday evening: 400 and 600 bales, Gothki and Dharki at Rs3,600, and 2,000 bales, upper Sindh at Rs3,465.