KARACHI: The higher flow of phutti (seed cotton) coupled with restricted buying from spinners depressed cotton prices on Wednesday. The underlying sentiment also remained easy.

Floor brokers said that spinners are cautious ahead of winter as they normally confront long power outages and gas shortage during the season.

The slow off-take of cotton yarn in the domestic and world market is another factor which is putting pressure on cotton prices the world over, brokers added.

Earlier in the day, cotton prices tended to firm up on rumours that the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) was going to start cotton procurement from next month. However, prices slipped back towards closing stages when it turned out that no meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) was held to take such a decision.

The New York market recovered where all the future contracts closed with modest gains. However, Indian cotton, where season has just started, came under pressure.

The Karachi Cotton Association (KCA) spot rates were lowered by Rs100 to Rs5,100 per maund.

The following major deals were reported to have changed hands on ready counter: 2,000 bales Khairpur at Rs5,200, 3,000 bales upper Sindh at Rs5,175 to Rs5,200, 1,200 bales Chishtian at Rs5,150, 3,000 bales Chichawatni at Rs5,150 to Rs5,250, 1,600 bales Yazman Mandi at Rs5,200, 1,400 bales Ahmedpur at Rs5,200, 4,600 bales Alipur at Rs5,250, 3,000 bales Layyah at Rs5,250, 2,000 bales Dera Ghazi Khan at Rs5,250 and 2,400 bales Khanewal at Rs5,300.

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 1-1/16” micronair value between 3.8 to 4.9 NCL.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2014