KARACHI, Oct 1: Cotton prices on Wednesday tended further higher as spinners were not inclined to take even a technical breather and lifted all the lots offered for sale by the ginners.

Bulk of the business, notably in the southern Punjab lint was finalized on an average rate of Rs2,600 per maund and slightly above, while Sindh variety was traded in line with the quality premium. Some of the lots were also traded at par with its Punjab counterpart.

The interesting feature of cotton trading is that bulk of the business is done late in the evening, details of which are transmitted here by the next day. As a result, it becomes sometime pretty difficult to report the actual rates at which physical trading is done, market sources said.

But no one could deny the fact that both the mills and spinners are out to cover their forward positions against sales of cotton yarn irrespective of the asking prices, they said.

They said the demand for Pakistani textiles and yarn was picking up each day owing to pressure on global supplies and higher prevailing rates elsewhere, notably in the US.

“The crop may not be that short to warrant panic mill buying but most of the spinners and mills may have their hands full with forward export orders and at a competitive rates,” says a ginner.

The fact that spinners are buyers at around Rs2,925 per maund, including 15 per cent sales tax or around Rs2,600 per maund reflects most of the spinners may have price leverage to cover forward higher price risks, he adds.

However, there was no let-up in panic mill buying as leading the spinners and mills made frantic effort to grab bulk of the floating stocks and the consequent increase in prices, brokers said.

Official spot rates were, therefore, further raised by Rs25 per maund, but in the ready section bulk of the business was done well above them.

New York cotton also showed fresh fractional rise of 0.5 and 0.26 cents per lb for both the ruling October and the distant December settlements at 66.75 and 68.01 cents per lb, respectively.

Ready offtake late in the evening was light at 2,000 bales from the Sindh cotton belt but details from the Punjab were not available. The following are some of the deals reported in Sindh variety: 1,000 bales, Nawabshah at Rs2,600; 400 bales, Shahdadpur also at Rs2,600; and 400 bales of Sanghar at Rs2,545.

The following are some of the notably deals reported late on Tuesday evening: 600 bales, Hasilpur, 400 bales, Mungi Bunglow, 800 bales, Bahawalpur, 200 bales, Chigoth, 200 bales, Chishtian and 200 bales, Rahimyar Khan were done at Rs2,600.