KARACHI, Sept 3: Cotton market on Wednesday consolidated the overnight gains as spinners were not inclined to sit on the sidelines and remained active buyers at the inflated levels.

Big lot business remained the hallmark of the day’s trading as leading mills having ensured export outlets continued to build up long positions even at the rising prices, floor brokers said.

They said the chief worry of spinners appears to be a sound stock position at least for the next quarter not the price inflation and that is perhaps why a daily tally of about 50,000 bales appears to be a routine matter.

“Fears of a short crop apart from the major thrust aims at securing forward textile sales to foreign buyers,” said a spinner adding: “As the demand of Pakistani textiles is on the higher side no one among us is inclined to take risk of default on shipment deadlines.”

The export tempo build-up during the last couple of months, which boosted exports of textiles by 34 per cent in July, will be maintained during the current financial year, he said.

That is perhaps why that the general perception is that prices of lint and phutti will remain on the higher side irrespective of size of the crop as the current mills buying is based on exports, some others said.

The other factor, which may keep prices of lint on the higher side is that the grower is not inclined to lower his selling price for phutti owing to higher cost of inputs, including fertiliser and pesticides, they added.

As a result, official spot rates were held unchanged at the overnight level of Rs4,125 per maund but in the ready section most of the deals were done well above them.

New York cotton futures on the other hand showed modest rise of 0.38 and 0.40 cents per lb at 67.91 and 70.18 cents for both the ruling October and the forward December contracts, respectively.

About 20 bales changed hands in the ready section, the following being some of the notable deals:

SINDH TYPE: 3,800 bales, 3,600, 1,000, 800, 200, 800, Tando Adam, Shahdadpur, Sanghar, Shahpur Chakkar, Khadro, Khipro, Sarhari, and 800 bales, Mirpurkhas at 4,150 to 4,175.

PUNJAB VARIETY: 200 bales, Burewala at Rs4,125, 1,200 bales, Pak Pattan at 4,075 to 4,100, 400, 600, 400, 200, 400 and 400 bales, Vehari, Chichawatni, Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar, and Arifwala at 4,100.