KARACHI: After staying steady throughout the week, cotton prices came under pressure on Saturday and closed easy. There were no new developments which could be reckoned for the reversal.

Dwindling demand for cotton forced ginners to lower prices for attracting buying. As a result, some spinners took benefit and lifted some small to big lot deals to meet their seasonal demand.

After improvement in flow irrigation water cotton, sowing is presently going on smoothly. There are reports that a large number of growers may shift from sugarcane crop to cotton which will help improve the production of latter.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Cotton Standard Institution is striving hard to improve cotton quality and in this regard workshops and seminars are being held. Working is also being done for grading and classification of cotton in the country.

Textile Commissioner Ahmed Baksh Narijo is also holding meetings with cotton stakeholders for improving lint quality and production.

Stakeholders have unanimously said that without ensuring supply of certified cotton seed and pesticides, the production and quality of the commodity cannot improve.

While the domestic market remained under pressure owing to lack of buying from spinners, world leading cotton markets were firm with New York cotton closing over two cents higher on US Department for Agriculture figures of higher cotton exports.

The Karachi Cotton Asso­ciation (KCA) also reduced spot rates by Rs100 to Rs7,500 per maund.

The following deals were reported to have changed hands on ready counter: 1,000 bales, station Bahawalpur, at Rs7,100; 2,640 bales, Rajanpur, at Rs7,000; 600 bales, Pul Bagar, at Rs6,800; 600 bales, Shujabad, at Rs6,600; 200 bales, Haroonabad, at Rs6,230; and 1,000 bales, Mian Channu, at Rs6,100.

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2018