KARACHI: Activity on the cotton market is not picking up as buyers are eagerly waiting for new crop to meet their demand.

Floor brokers said reports coming from Punjab indicate that around two ginning factories have started their operations on receiving new crop phutti from lower Sindh.

They added that within the next week ginning units in Sindh would also start functioning as new crop arrivals from lower Sindh pick up.

However, they said the new crop of cotton may start reaching marketplace by next week.

Meanwhile, reports from cotton fields indicate that so far cotton crop in Punjab and Sindh is maturing normally and there is no problem of any sort.

World cotton markets remained easy where New York cotton finished lower for all future contracts except for maturing July contract which ended with modest gain.

Trading once again remained extremely slow, except a few direct deals that transpired between mills.

Karachi Cotton Association (KCA) spot rates were unchanged and only one deal of 204 bales from Haroonabad at Rs6,900 was reported on ready counter.

The following are Tuesday’s new crop Karachi Cotton Association (KCA) official spot rates for local dealings in Pak rupees for base grade 3 staple length 1-1/32” micronair value between 3.8 to 4.9 NCL.

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2014