KARACHI: Cotton trading was brisk on Friday, but prices slightly came under pressure in line with world trend. However, the underlying sentiment remained positive on strong demand for lint from spinners and exporters.

Floor brokers said that high flow of phutti (seed cotton) ensuring smooth supply of quality cotton kept attracting buyers. Since the size of crop is being estimated to be a little more than the last year’s, there was sustained demand for cotton.

Cotton analysts believe view that the actual crop size would not be possible to be estimated before December because first picking is still going on during which phutti arrivals are normally high.

Despite the fact that US Department of Agriculture has reported 50 per cent increase in cotton exports over the previous week but expectation of harvesting bigger cotton crop due to favourable climate bought cotton prices under pressure on the New York cotton market. The Indian cotton prices also came under pressure on reports of higher production of cotton against lower exports. The fear of halt in exports of Indian cotton to Pakistan under the prevailing circumstances was putting pressure on prices, analysts added.

The big lot buying orders, however, kept pouring in throughout the session which in a way also helped cotton prices from registering big fall. The Karachi Cotton Association left its spot rate unchanged.

Major deals on the ready counter were: 1,000 bales, Tando Adam (Rs5,775 to Rs5,800), 2,000 bales Nawabshah (Rs6,050 to Rs6,075), 1,000 bales Moro (Rs6,100 to Rs6,150), 5,000 bales Khairpur (Rs6,200 to Rs6,250), 3,000 bales Saleh Pat (Rs6,200-Rs62,50), 42,00 bales Bahawalpur (Rs62,50 to Rs6,300), 1,200 bales Fort Abbas (Rs6,250 to Rs6,300), 4,800 bales Haroonabad (Rs6,275-Rs6,325) and 2,600 bales Rajanpur (Rs6,300-Rs6,325).

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2016