June 20, 2008	Friday	Jamadi-us-Sani 15, 1429

KARACHI, June 19: Quietly steady conditions prevailed on the cotton market on Thursday as leading spinners and mills remained conspicuous by their absence anticipating fall in the prices.

Local brokers said some of the spinners were in the market to seek fresh supplies but the price ideas of buyers and sellers failed to find a meeting ground.

“Ginners are seeking higher prices on supply and demand factors as their unsold stocks are too small to meet the mill demand before the arrival of the new crop,” spinners said. ”We need lint within our parity levels to remain competitive on the international markets.”

However, ginners appear to be in no hurry to lower their asking prices at this stage owing to a considerable decline in unsold stocks of lint, they said.

Normal trading activity on the market is expected to be resumed after the new crop arrivals from the central Sindh and Punjab cotton belts get normal by early September.

Meanwhile, stray forward deals both in lower Sindh and central Punjab cotton belts are expected to gather momentum for late August delivery, but it may not have any negative impact on the prevailing prices.

The future new crop price outlook appears to be a bit bearish as a forward deal of 200 bales by a Sultanabad ginner was finalised at Rs3,800 per maund against previously signed forward deals at Rs4,000, market sources said.

But some analysts said the rebound staged by the New York cotton futures on Thursday would have a positive impact on the local prices in the coming weeks amid fears of short supply. The ruling July and forward October contracts on New York Cotton Exchange were quoted higher by 1.01 and 1.10 cents at 73.82 and 78.17 cents per lb, respectively.

There was, however, no change in the official spot rates at Rs3,800 per maund.

A deal for 200 bales from Dharki ginnery was also reported at Rs3,850 per maund for ready delivery.