KARACHI: Cotton prices rose further as aggressive buying from spinners and some exporters continued on Thursday.

However, the issue of quality is becoming serious with each passing day as smog and fog in Punjab is affecting the standing crop. Heavy moisture is making its way into cotton bolls, damaging the fibre/lint.

Many big spinners are gearing up to import cotton from US, West Africa and Central Asian countries. According to market sources, around 1.5 million bales have so far been booked by spinners.

Big spinners are preferring to import cotton even at high price as it has little issue of contamination. Presently, imported cotton costs around 76-78 US cents per lb.

Brokers said that while the issue of cotton quality is there, interestingly the volume of trading continues to rise along with prices.

According to private estimates, cotton production would stand less than government estimates of 12.6 million bales. Phutti rates also increased further.

The world leading cotton markets gave mixed trend with New York cotton managed to recover and Indian and Chinese cotton were steady to mix.

The following major deals were reported to have changed hands on the ready counter on Thursday: 1,200 bales, Ghotki, at Rs6,775 to Rs6,800; 1,600 bales, Daharki, at Rs6,775 to Rs6,800; 1,000 bales, Rohri, at Rs6,500 to Rs6,550; 1,000 bales, Moro, at Rs6,400 to Rs6,450; 1,400 bales, Nawabshah, at Rs6,300; 2,400 bales, Khairpur, at Rs6,500 to Rs6,550; 1,000 bales, Shahdadpur, at Rs5,600 to Rs6,150; 1,200 bales, Tando Adam, at Rs5,600 to Rs6,000; 2,000 bales, Sadiqabad, at Rs6,800; 2,000 bales, Rahimyar Khan, at Rs6,800; 400 bales, Khanpur, at Rs6,800 to Rs6,900; 200 bales, Choti Zareen, at Rs6,800; 200 bales, DG Khan, at Rs6,800; 1,200 bales, Fazilpur, at Rs6,800; 400 bales, Liaquatpur, at Rs6,800; 400 bales, Mirpur Diwan, at Rs6,800; 400 bales, Rajanpur, at Rs6,800; 600 bales, Ahmedpur East, at Rs6,675 to 6,700; 800 bales, Yazman, at Rs6,640 to Rs6,700; and 400 bales, Fatehpur, at Rs6,500 to Rs6,525.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2017