KARACHI, June 9: Trading activity on the cotton market on Thursday remained confined to a few hundred odd lots as ginners tried to clear the backlog of stray unsold stocks, brokers said.

Selling rates fluctuated between Rs2,100 to Rs2,250 per maund depending on the quality of lint but there was no big deal as far as the low-mic lint was concerned, they said.

However, some of the leading ginners from upper Sindh and southern Punjab, who still hold a couple of thousands of fine lots, appeared to be in no hurry to sell them apparently entertaining higher price ideas.

“Lint prices may move both ways, but the unsold stocks lying in our godowns are not a liquidity problem as most of us have already adjusted overdraft limits and got them renewed for the next cotton season,” ginners said.

They based their assessment on the mill demand as most of the spinners and mills still needed fine lots to spin higher counts of cotton yarn against their export orders, market sources said.

Some of them were selling fine lots around Rs2,325 per maund as leading textile groups opt for local buying rather than seeking foreign supplies for obvious reasons.

In the backdrop of weak New York cotton futures and weekly auctions by the TCP below and around Rs2,300 per 40 kg depending on quality, ginners may not be in a dictating positions at least for the near-term.

But in any case, ginners will try to hold the fort until new crop from the lower Sindh cotton belt arrives and the rates at which it is sold. Some of the forward deals in it were made around Rs2,300 a couple of weeks earlier for late July or early August delivery.

Official spot rates, therefore, did not show any change in the absence of an adequate ready business and were held unchanged at the last levels.

New York cotton futures on the other hand turned mixed. While the maturing July settlement showed a fresh fractional decline of 0.05 cents at 46.89, the new crop October contract managed to finish with a gain of 0.10 cents at 49.70 cents per lb.