KARACHI: Cotton trading was listless on Monday in the absence of buying interest. Slow off-take of cotton yarn and liquidity crunch being faced by the textile industry had its toll over the trading.

The huge amount of outstanding refunds belonging to exporters of textile goods was causing liquidity crunch in the industry which could not meet its future export commitments.

This and the slow off-take of cotton yarn were causing adverse impact on cotton trade, brokers said.

However, rising tension due to Syrian conflict was also negatively impacting world trade, particularly of commodities. Though most of the leading cotton markets around the world closed steady, trading activity slowed down, reports suggested.

The Karachi Cotton Association’s spot rates were firm at weekend level. There were no worth-mentioning deals reported on the ready counter except some small-lot deals were finalised privately by buyers and sellers.

Published in Dawn, April 11th, 2017