KARACHI, Oct 30: Cotton market on Thursday maintained its recovery drive for the third session in a row on strong mill demand aided partly by reports of an identical turnaround on the foreign markets.

Official spot rates were again revised upward by Rs100 at Rs3,050 per maund, but fine lots from the Punjab cotton belt were traded as higher as Rs3,150.

Phutti (seed-cotton) prices also showed sympathetic increase after having fallen to Rs1,400 per 40 kg and were quoted at Rs1,600 plus.

“Prices are heading towards their pre-reaction level of Rs3,600 per maund,” some brokers believe. “The spinners and mills are active buyers even at the rising prices owing to problem on the import front,” said a spinner.

Although international prices well below 50-cent per lb are still attractive, but problems on the foreign exchange front did not allow us to open letters of credit (LCs) at least for the near-term, they said.

“We are, therefore, operating on the local market, being the sole buyers, which cause price flare-up,” they said, adding “we certainly need foreign stuff and will opt for it after the financial conditions show an improvement.”

Meanwhile, reports coming from the cotton belts indicate that there is no improvement in power supply and ginners are trying to keep the wheels moving after having made some other arrangements.

Most of them notably in the upper Sindh and southern Punjab have resumed buying phutti at rates in line with those of the prevailing lint prices depending on quality.

New York cotton futures posted fresh modest rise of 0.21 and 0.27 cents per lb at 46.88 and 50.88 cents per lb for both the ruling December and the forward March contracts, respectively.

Mill ready off-take was maintained on the higher side totalling about 20,000 bales as under:

SINDH TYPE: 2,500 bales, Nawabshah and 600 bales, Shahdadpur at Rs3,075 to Rs3,100, 1,000 bales, Khairpur at Rs3,050 to Rs3,100, 600 bales, 200 bales, Mirpurkhas and 400 bales, Sanghar at Rs3,100.

PUNJAB VARIETY: 1,000 bales, each Burewala and Fazalpur at Rs3,100 to Rs3,150, 1,000 bales, D.G. Khan, 200 bales, each Vehari, Gojra, Chichawatni, Khanewal, Ahmedpur East and 1,000 bales, Uch Sharif at Rs3,100, 400 bales, Alipur at Rs3,090 to Rs3,100, 200 bales, Hasilpur at Rs3,090, 400 bales, Shaden Lund, 1,000 bales, Shujabad, 200 bales, Ghazi Ghat at Rs3,050, 200 bales, each Sahiwal, Kheror Pacca and Shorkot at Rs3,000.