KARACHI, Oct 15: Active trading was witnessed on the cotton market on Wednesday as spinners were not inclined to take even a technical breather and lifted all the lots offered by ginners for ready sales.

Floor brokers said as the crop situation was unclear both the buyers and the sellers were operating according to their future market perceptions but one thing appeared certain that the crop was short.

“The current price flare-up in lint seems to have been caused by panic mill buying in the backdrop of conflicting reports about the size of the crop followed by pest attack in some of the areas,” market sources said.

But some others claim spinners and mills are not that fool to contribute to unprecedented rise in lint prices. “Through their own crop monitoring system they may have a fair idea of the damage and a possible shortfall.”

Unlike the previous sessions, much of the activity remained confined to the central Sindh varieties, which were available at slightly lower rates as compared to the southern Punjab fine type.

About 10,000 bales from the Sindh ginneries, including some big lots, changed hands late on Tuesday evening and during the mid-session on Wednesday.

Details of ready business from the Punjab ginneries were not immediately available as bulk of the business there is conducted late in the evening and information about it is transmitted here generally the next day.

But reports coming from there indicate about 20,000 bales changed hands between Rs2,900 and Rs3,100 per maund without 15 per cent sales tax depending on the quality of lint in trade.

Reports coming in for the cotton market also show an increase in prices ranging from Rs7 to Rs10 per kilo of various counts but ready offtake remained light as end-product users have curtailed their daily intake.

Meanwhile, reports coming from the entire cotton belt suggest that arrivals of phutti are still far below the average daily figure and it is not clear whether final picking operations have been completed or growers holding back their stocks will sell them at further higher levels.

Official spot rates were lowered by Rs50 per maund and in physical trading most of the deals were done in line with them.