KARACHI: Lacklustre conditions prevailed on the cotton market on Saturday as buyers remained on the sidelines.

The assurance given by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar to keep rupee’s value firm at Rs98 to a dollar, and withdrawal of exemption of five per cent duty on import of cotton yarn also failed to induce trading interest.

However, floor brokers believe that the impact of these two major developments may be witnessed next week, particularly when withdrawal of duty exemption on cotton yarn import has been resented by value-added sector.

The government has fixed next season’s cotton crop target at 15m bales and it has already planned to lift around 1m bales through the TCP.

Naseem Usman, chairman of FPCCI standing committee on raw cotton, believes that government’s assurance to keep rupee-dollar parity steady at Rs98 and its decision to withdraw duty exemption on yarn import will help stabilise cotton prices.

The KCA spot rates stood unchanged at previous level and trading on ready counter was extremely slow.

The following deals were reported to have changed hands on ready counter: 1,200 bales, Mehrabpur, at Rs5,300; 200 bales, Ghotki, at Rs6,200; 300 bales, Bahawalpur, at Rs6,300; and 600 bales, Chani Goth, at Rs6,400.