KARACHI: Cotton prices maintained bullish trend on Monday amid sustained demand from leading spinners who kept chasing quality lots to build up their stocks.

Rumours that withdrawal of 5 per cent sales tax on import of cotton is under consideration also induced buying sentiment.

As the crop size is being estimated to be not more than 11-11.5 million bales this means that around 4m bales would have to be imported to meet the domestic demand. The phutti (seed-cotton) prices also moved higher in sympathy with cotton rates. The Sindh variety was quoted between Rs3,800 to Rs4,200/40kg; Punjab’s at Rs3,800 to Rs4,300 and Balochistan at Rs3,700 to Rs4,400.

However, after the reduction in gas prices for the Punjab industry, a large number of textile units are expected to revive and this may further increase the demand for cotton, brokers said.

The Karachi Cotton Association (KCA) spot rates were raised by Rs100 more to Rs8,600 per maund.

The following deals were reported to have changed hands on the ready counter: 2,000 bales, Khairpur, at Rs8,650 to Rs8,700; 1,400 bales, Nawabshah, at Rs8,450 to Rs8,500; 800 bales, Mirpur Mathilo, at Rs8,800; 800 bales, Ghotki, at Rs8,800; 1,000 bales, Khanpur, at Rs8,700 to Rs8,750; 1,800 bales, Sadiqabad, at Rs8,700; 1,400 bales, Liaquatpur, at Rs8,700 to Rs8,725; 1,400 bales, Rajanpur, at Rs8,700; 1,400 bales, Fazilpur, at Rs8,700; 1,000 bales, Tonsa Shareef, at Rs8,700; 1,400 bales, Fort Abbas, at Rs8,600; 1,200 bales, Layyah, at Rs8,600; 1,400 bales, Haroonabad, at Rs8,450 to Rs8,700; 1,200 bales, Burewala, at Rs8,350 and 1,400 bales, from Faqueerwali, done at Rs8,400.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2018