KARACHI: Cotton prices surged up on Tuesday on higher arrivals of phutti (seed cotton) and strong demand from spinners.

Spinners rushed to replenish their stocks ahead of Eidul Azha when most of the transport will get engaged in the haulage of sacrificial animals.

As the Eid is coming closer, the availability of transport becomes difficult which adversely affects the movement of phutti as well as cotton. Therefore, most spinners are indulging in panic buying, brokers said.

However, the most significant development of the proceedings was that there was some trading in cotton from Balochistan. Since quality of cotton from Balochistan is very high, the phutti was quoted at around Rs3,650 per 40 kilograms, brokers added.

The high demand against somewhat restricted supply of phutti keeps the buyers and sellers in a sort of tug of war as both are trying to strike deals in their favour. However, currently ginners are better placed against spinners who are striving hard to get big deals to meet their demand, brokers said.

The world cotton markets gave mixed trend where New York cotton recovered part of the recent losses. However, the Indian market remained under pressure as prices declined by Rs200 per 265kg.

The Karachi Cotton Association raised its spot rate by Rs50, to Rs6,600 per maund (around 37kg).

Major deals on the ready counter were: 1,600 bales from Sanghar (at Rs6,700 to Rs6,775), 600 bales Mirpurkhas (Rs6,750), 1,000 bales Hyderabad (Rs6,750), 400 bales Hala (Rs6,750), 1,000 bales Shahdadpur (Rs6,750 to Rs6,800), 1,600 bales Tando Adam (Rs6,750 to Rs6,820), 400 bales Samundri (Rs6,790), 200 bales Mongi Bangla (Rs6,790), 400 bales Hasilpur (Rs6,850), 200 bales Vehari (Rs6,850) and 200 bales Chichawatni (Rs6,850).

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2016