MULTAN: Influenced by global trend, the cotton trading picked up pace on Monday and prices also rose as spinners remained active to meet their near-future requirement.

Floor brokers said there were reports of higher trend from the cotton markets of all over the world.

Some Indian and Bangladeshi spinning mills were interested in purchasing cotton from Pakistan, they said.

They said exporters have become active after the spinning mills of both countries contacted them and asked for samples from Sindh’s new crop.

Like other cotton-growing countries, the sowing area of cotton in India and China was also less as compared to previous years, they added.

They said that payment position of Pakistani spinning mills was poor as this year they were making payments only after the purchased cotton reached at their respective mills. Earlier, they used to make payments in advance.

Brokers predicted that the export volume of the crop for this year would be increased to a surprising level as demand and supply would not remain balanced due to the huge volume of demand at international level because of the sowing of the cotton on less area globally.

Deals of about 2,400 maund of phutti (seed cotton) were finalised in Sindh. The prices in Thatta were Rs3,300, Badin Rs3,250, Jhadu Rs3,225, Degree Rs3,300, Kunri Rs3,225, Sanghar Rs3,225, Tando Allah Yar Rs3,150/3,200, Chichawatni Rs3,225 and Hasilpur Rs3,300.

The Karachi Cotton Association kept its spot rates unchanged at Rs5,500. Major deals on the ready counter were: 400 bales in Khanewal at Rs6,100, 600 bales in Burewala at Rs6,050, 800 bales in Tando Adam at Rs5,900/5,950, 200 bales in Shahdad Kot at Rs5,950, 400 bales in Sanghar at Rs5,950 and 400 bales in Kotri at Rs5,925.

Deals of old crop included: 1,100 bales in Fatehpur at Rs5,400, 400 bales in Faqirwalai at Rs5,400, 1,200 bales in Uch Sharif at Rs5,400/5,425, 400 bales in Alipur at Rs5,450, and 200 bales (low quality) in Shujabad at Rs5,100. Moreover, 4,600 bales were sold out by the Trading Corporation of Pakistan at Rs5,825.

Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2016