KARACHI, July 29: Trading activity on the cotton market on Tuesday remained insipid as spinners were not inclined to make bigger commitments fearing interruption in supplies because of rain.

Floor brokers, however, reported presence of strong mill demand for delivery during the post-rain sessions as the quality of the wet lint is far inferior than the dry stuff.

Stray business in the ready section was reported around the recently established higher rates, although spinners complain that the ruling prices are not compatible with the export parity rates of cotton yarn or finished products, they said. “Although picking operations of phutti in some of the areas in the lower and central Sindh cotton belt have been resumed, ginners are not in a position to start ginning as the quantity is too small to feed on the units,” market sources said adding “no one is sure about the weather conditions or the rain.”

There is a near-consensus among the ginners that normal operations will be resumed only if the current spell of monsoon ends and there is seasonal gap of dry weather.

They said growers had already resumed picking operations in some areas of the central Sindh cotton belt where there is no rain and field are dry but are keeping phutti at their own storage houses. “To produce contamination-free lint, growers are advised by the officials not to use jute bags or hessian cloth and send it to ginning factories without any packing,” ginners said “but for fears of rain growers are keeping it in their godowns.”

After the successful experiment to produce contamination-free lint in the Rahimyar Khan district, the government has also extended this scheme in Sindh, they said.

There was no change in the official spot rates but some of the deal in the new crop were done at slightly lower rates as compared to a couple of sessions earlier.

The New York cotton futures on the other hand showed a modest rise of 0.32 and 0.24 cents per lb at 58.90 and 60.55 cents per lb for both the ruling October and the distant December settlements respectively.

Ready offtake was modest and was confined to the new crop from the Sindh ginneries. The following some of the deals were reported by a leading brokerage house; 200 bales, Sultanabad at Rs.2,450.00 and 100 bales, Pithoro at 2,475.00.