May 28, 2008	Wednesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 22, 1429

KARACHI, May 27: Supply and demand factors dominated trading on the cotton market on Tuesday as ginners held on to their unsold positions and did not lower their asking prices despite reports of higher imports.

Stray lots did change hands in line with the quality of lint in trade, said a floor broker, adding better quality lint was traded as higher as Rs3,950 per maund, while inferior lots were traded at Rs3,665, showing a wide difference of Rs300 per maund.

He said while leading spinners groups had built up strong stock positions through massive imports during the last couple of months, their weak links are mostly relying on the local stuff to keep the wheels moving.

According to unofficial figures compiled by some private agencies and brokerage houses, leading spinners had, so far, imported about four million bales of lint worth Rs70 billion from various sources to make up the local crop shortfall.

“The bulk of the imported stuff is claimed to be of short staple lint and the spinners and mills need more long and medium staple lint to produce higher quality of yarn and cotton,” said a spinner, adding that local ginners are not inclined to sell it below Rs4,000 per maund.

Meanwhile, reports coming from the central Punjab cotton belt indicate that ginners are expected to resume ginning operations by the first week of the next month to honour their forward deals.

According to local brokers, the maiden seasonal delivery of new crop lint is scheduled to be made on June 22 under a forward deal signed early this month between a ginner and a spinner at Rs4,000 per maund.

There was no change in the official spot rates, which were held unchanged at Rs3,600 per maund for the second day in a row.

The following are some of the deals in the ready section: 1,000 bales, Yaru Lund at Rs3,700; 758 and 440 bales, Rohri and Ranipur at Rs3,665, and 1,600 bales, Harappa at Rs3,950.