KARACHI: The cotton market turned listless on Monday amid mounting tension between India and Pakistan in the aftermath of the recent terrorist attack in the Indian occupied Kashmir last week.

At the outset, there was no evidence of buying interest and the trading ring gave a deserted look.

Despite short crop, which is now being estimated not more than 10.8 million bales, the buyers’ interest was totally lacking.

According to brokers, rumours that India is going to impose a 200 per cent duty on Pakistani imports and exports raised concern as Pakistani spinners are currently depending on cotton imports from India.

However, Atul Ganatra, President of the Cotton Association of India (CAI) is reported to have stated, “Cotton export is unaffected so far and we expect Pakistan to not pose hurdles as their cotton industry requires raw material from India. India is the most accessible and cost-effective market for them.”

The cotton yarn market also turned inactive as there was no demand from the value-added textile sector.

The Karachi Cotton Association (KCA) spot rates were firm at weekend level of Rs8,600 per maund.

In the absence of trading interest, no transactions were reported to have materialised on ready counter.

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2019