KARACHI, July 25: Cotton prices eased on Friday from the record highs losing Rs50 to Rs100 per maund depending on the quality as some of the ginners indulged in nervous selling followed by reports of steady arrivals of phutti.

The interesting feature of the session was that some of the exporters also entered the market and sold 600 bales of fine lint for Karachi delivery to mills at all-time high of Rs4,250 per maund, floor brokers said.

But on the physical market some of the ginners lowered their asking prices by Rs50 to Rs100 per maund in an apparent effort to clear their backlog of unsold stocks after arrivals of phutti into the ginneries gathered momentum, they said.

“The steady increase in arrivals of phutti may not in any way indicate higher crop ideas, but shows growers are in a bit haste to sell their produce at the current higher rate Rs2,000 per 40kg,” they said.

The first picking in the central Punjab cotton belt is expected to be completed by the next week but in no way it gives any idea of the crop size or the damage caused to the standing crop by the recent pest attack, some others said.

Meanwhile, some more ginneries have resumed operations in the lower Sindh cotton belt as arrivals of phutti are showing progressive increase owing to warm weather.

The Sindh growers are said to be a bit happy as they are getting the same price as their counterparts in the Punjab and there is no discount like the previous years, ginners said.

Picking operations of phutti in the upper Sindh and the southern Punjab cotton belts will be resumed by the end of the next month or early September as due to late sowing in line with the climatic conditions, they said.

It was in this background that the official spot rates were revised downward by Rs25 per maund after a sustained rise of Rs500 during the last two weeks.

New York cotton futures on the other hand maintained their upward drive on strong buying and were quoted further higher by 0.88 and 0.94 cents per lb at 71.04 and 73.86 cents for both the ruling October and the forward December, respectively.

Ready business was on the higher side amounting to about 10,000 bales, the following being some of the notable deals:

SINDH TYPE: 200 bales, Shahdadpur at Rs4,150, 900 bales, Sanghar at Rs4,100 to Rs4,150, 400 bales, Tando Adam at Rs4,100 to Rs4,125 and 500 bales, Hyderabad at Rs4,100 to Rs4,175.

PUNJAB VARIETY: 200 bales, each Depalpur, Haroonabad, Gojra, Ghaziabad, at Rs4,150, 800 bales, Sahiwal at Rs4,100 to Rs4,175, 800 bales, Chichawatni and 600 bales, Arifwala at Rs4,100 to Rs4,150, 200 bales, Bahawalpur at Rs4,100 and 400 bales, Hasilpur at Rs4,100 to Rs4,170.