KARACHI, Dec 3: Active trading was witnessed on the cotton market on Wednesday as spinners lifted all the lots amounting to 40,000 bales offered by the ginners at an average rate of Rs3,000 per maund.

Both spinners and the mills are in a bit hurry after the resumption of procurement operations by the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP), which had also purchased 0.125m bales, both from the Sindh and the Punjab ginners during the last two days.

The interesting feature was that some big lot deals, 3,000 to 6,000 bales, were reported, reflecting spinner worries about increase in prices after the entry of the TCP as a second buyer, some brokers said.

Analysts said the volume figure shows that a formidable section of ginners still prefer selling their unsold stocks to mills and the spinners at much lower rates, ranging from Rs2,735 to Rs3,000 per maund depending on the quality of lint apparently because of prompt payments.

“There appears to be no signs of price war between the first and the second buyer as was widely speculated, although spinners purchased as many lots as they could at the above rate, while the TCP bought 60,000 bales at its fixed price of Rs3,202 per 40 kgs,” they said.

Owing to a long procedural process, quality factors and delay in payments, ginners mostly opt for the first buyers (spinners) for obvious reasons, they added.

However, the entry of the TCP in the cotton trade has stabilised prices around at competitive level and ginners have an alternative source to opt for a better price, some others said.

Official spot rates were firmly held at the overnight level

of Rs3,000 per maund but on

the other hand New York cotton futures suffered fall, ranging from 0.05 to 0.70 cents per lb for both the maturing December and the ruling March contracts at 45.06 and 46.33 cents per lb, respectively.

The following are some of the notable deals reported by the Karachi Brokers Forum on Wednesday; 400 bales, Khipro at Rs2,735, 800 bales, Sanghar at Rs2,735 to Rs2,800 and 600 bales, Moro at Rs2,800.

PUNJAB VARIETY: 6,000 bales, Rahimyar Khan, 3,000 Ahmedpur East, 1,000 Shadan Lund, 400 Uch Sharif, 200, Khanewal, 800, Kabirwala, 400, Sadiqabad, 800 Bahwalpur, at Rs3,000, 2,000, Rajanpur, at Rs2,950 to Rs3,000, 1,400, Alipur, 600, 3,000, 400, each Jalalpur and Arifwala and 600 Chichawatni at Rs2,900, 200, Burewala, at Rs2,925, 200, Haroonabad, Rs2,800, 400 Fort Abbas at Rs2,850 and 800 bales, Shah Jamal at Rs2,825.