KARACHI, July 30: Spinners on Wednesday resumed their covering operations after ginners modestly lowered their asking prices depending on quality premium of the lint in trade.

Some of the ready business reported by a leading brokerage house indicates that both the spinners and the mills are buyers for any number of lots offered below or around Rs2,450 per maund.

However, a leading spinner group purchased a big lot of 7,000 bales from a southern Punjab ginnery on credit at Rs2,675 per maund, while a ready deal of the current crop was also reported at Rs2,450.

There has been a virtual standoff during the last couple of sessions when ginners have raised their asking prices to Rs2,500 per maund followed by reports of damage to standing new crop in some of the areas of the lower Sindh owing to heavy rain.

But some ginners claim that they have to lower their selling prices because of damage to the fibre content to newly picked phutti, which got wet in the rain.

However, the damage to the lint fibre is not that alarming to have a negative impact on the quality of the end-products, including yarn, they said.

That is perhaps spinners are lifting all the lots offered for sale by the lower Sindh ginneries despite claims of low-mic and in some cases below normal fibre strength of yarn, they said.

Floor brokers said reports coming from the central Sindh cotton belt indicated that some of the ginneries had resumed their operations as some of the growers are delivering phutti, although at bit higher rate of Rs.950 per 40 kg on ready basis.

But the unfixed lots are getting much better prices ranging from Rs980 to Rs1,000 per 40 kg, they added.

Meanwhile, the Karachi Cotton Association (KCA) has announced to start the new cotton season from August 1, instead of September 1, in conformity with all the major cotton producers of the world.

There was no change in the official spot rates but most of the deals in the ready section were done slightly above them.

New York cotton futures on the other hand remained under pressure owing to speculative selling and fell sharply by 1.13 at 57.77 and 59.42 for both the ruling October and the forward December settlements, respectively.

Ready business was large totalling about 10,000 bales of both the current and the Sindh new crop as under: 400 bales, Mirpurkhas at Rs2,440, 200 bales, at Rs2,450; 200 bales, Sultanabad at Rs2,450; and 200 bales, Tando Allahyar at Rs2,440.

CURRENT CROP: 7,000 bales at Rs2,675 on credit, and 1,400 bales, at Rs2,410.