KARACHI: Cotton prices moved lower on Thursday amid slow trading and depressed cotton yarn demand in the domestic market.
Floor brokers said that the rupee gaining strength in the inter-bank trading dampened sentiment as exports will become costlier. The textile sector is already faced with a number of issues including availability of cheap Indian cotton yarn.
However, brokers said that it is encouraging that the recent strength gained by the Indian rupee and weaker Chinese currency have somewhat checked yarn exports from India to China.
Nevertheless, slow off-take of cotton yarn in the domestic market continues to adversely affect cotton trade as spinners are reluctant to enter into fresh deals. Barring some interest shown by exporters in low quality lint, the market lacked trading interest, they added.
The world cotton markets also remained easy where Chinese cotton stocks have come down considerably.
The New York cotton gave mixed trend where far-off contracts ended with fresh gains and near-future contracts closed easy. The KCA cut its spot rates by Rs50 to Rs6,500 per maund.
Following deals were reported to have changed hands on the ready counter: 1,100 bales, Sui, at Rs5,400; 558 bales, Ghotki, at Rs6,200; 400 bales, Karampur, at Rs6,550; 1,400 bales, Khanpur, at Rs6,600; and 1,000 bales, Rahimyar Khan, at Rs6,500.
