KARACHI: The cotton market remained steady on Tuesday as buyers indulged in short covering which helped the price line stay pegged at previous level. The overall undertone was steady with some optimism about coming days.

Improved off-take of cotton yarn and better performance of some leading world cotton markets helped induce sentiment.

According to market reports, revival of cotton yarn demand from China and local textile ancillary industry triggered buying and resulted in fairly brisk activity.

Phutti (seed cotton) prices were also steady but issues related to unsold cotton stocks with ginners and phutti with growers continued to disrupt the entire cotton economy, brokers said.

The Karachi Cotton Association (KCA) spot rates were firm at overnight level at Rs8,800 per maund.

The following deals were reported to have changed hands on ready counter: 2,000 bales, station Saleh Pat, at Rs8,650-8,875; 1,200 bales, Khairpur Mirus, at Rs8,500-8,700; 2,200 bales, Khanpur, at Rs9,100; 4,200 bales, Rahim Yar Khan, at Rs9,000-9,100; 1,200 bales, Sadiqabad, at Rs9,000-9,100; 1,000 bales, Donga Bunga, at Rs8,800; 1,200 bales, Bahawalnagar, at Rs8,300; 600 bales Ghotki, at Rs9,100; and 500 bales, Shahdadpur, at Rs8,350.

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2018