KARACHI, Nov 1: Cotton prices on Tuesday suffered sharp fall on hasty selling by some of the leading ginners ahead of a long Eid holiday weekend and rumours of fresh fall in prices during the sessions preceding the holidays, analysts said.

An idea of falling prices may well be had from the fact that some of the lower Sindh types were traded as lower as Rs4,200, while that of Punjab Rs5,300 per maund. Official spot rates were also lowered by Rs200 per maund at Rs5,550.

Apart from nervous local selling owing partly to delivery problems, fresh reversal in New York cotton futures, which fell by 2.08 and 1.68 cents per lb at 102.29 and 100.82 cents for both ruling December and the forward March contracts, respectively, also weighed against the underlying sentiment, they added.

They said leading ginners, who have been holding long positions of unsold stocks, were the major sellers at each decline and build-up long positions, notably in fine types from the Punjab ginneries.

“Spinners and mills having credible export outlets and enough funds to hold long positions of the finished goods were among the active buyers and purchased both inferior and fine type,” said a leading broker.

But those, who eyes the rate slightly above Rs4,000 per maund, are not that active and awaiting their turn to be in the forefront of leading buyers, they added.

Mill ready off-take was on the higher side as till late in the evening about 20,000 bales changed hands as under:

SINDH TYPE: 200 bales, Hala at Rs4,200, 800 bales, Mirpurkhas at Rs4,200 to Rs4,800, 400 bales, Shahdadpur at 4,700 to 4,850, 200 bales, Nawabshah at Rs4,740, 200 bales, Sanghar at Rs4,850, 1,000 bales, Khairpur at Rs5,200 to 5,550, and 1,000 bales, upper Sindh at Rs5,500 to 5,600.

PUNJAB VARIETY: 1,000 bales, Fort Abbas at Rs5,200 to 5,450, 600 bales, Mian Channu at Rs5,200 to Rs5,400, 1,000 bales, Hasilpur at Rs5,250 to Rs5,275, 600 bales, Faqirwali at Rs5,300 to 5,400, 1,000 bales, Vehari at Rs5,300 to 5,500, 400 bales, Shujaabad and 600 bales, Lodhran at Rs5,300 to 5,400, 1,600 bales, Haroonabad at Rs5,300 to Rs5,400, 600 bales, Chishtian at Rs5,300 and 400 bales, Bahawalnagar at Rs5,350, 200 bales, each 1,000 bales, and 400 bales, Basti Malook, Pul Bagarh, D. G. Khan, Dunyiapur, Multan and Jahania at Rs5,400, 1,000 bales, Burewala at Rs5,400 to 5,500, 1,000 bales, Khanewal Rs5,500 to 5,550, 2,000 bales, Fazalpur at Rs5,500, 400 bales, Silanwali at Rs5,650 and 200 bales, Mianwali at Rs5,700.