KARACHI: Cotton prices remained under pressure on Wednesday owing to ‘oversold’ position of some ginners in the new crop. The trading also remained slow because of slow off-take of cotton yarn.

Floor brokers said that presently the cotton market is lacking buying enthusiasm due to slow demand for cotton yarn from domestic as well as export market. The devaluation of Chinese currency has slowed down exports of cotton yarn from Pakistan

Cotton analyst Naseem Usman said that devaluation of Chinese currency has made imports of cotton yarn from Pakistan costlier and this has slowed down demand from Chinese importers for cotton yarn.

The monsoon rains in India are feared to have damaged standing cotton crop and elsewhere cotton markets around the world remained easy. The New York cotton tumbled down by five cents for maturing July contract and fell by almost one cent for all other contracts.

The Karachi Cotton Association (KCA) cut its spot rates for second straight session by Rs50 to Rs6,700 per maund and trading on ready counter was slow.

The following deals were reported to have changed hands on ready counter: 400 bales, Sanghar, at Rs6,200 to Rs6,300, 1,000 bales, Shahdadpur, at Rs6,200 to Rs6,300, 400 bales, Mirpurkhas, at Rs6,300 and 200 bales, Haroonabad, at Rs6,500.

The following are Wednesday’s new crop Karachi Cotton Association (KCA) official spot rates for local dealings in Pak rupees for base grade 3 staple length 1-1/32” micronair value between 3.8 to 4.9 NCL.

Published in Dawn, June 26th, 2014