KARACHI: The cotton market failed to generate activity on Tuesday as buyers and sellers kept to the sidelines. Most of the commodity markets — including cotton — are waiting for the mini-budget scheduled for January 23 (today).

World cotton markets were also weighed down by slow trade.

In the absence of clear economic policies from the government, trade and industry is currently failing to take any direction towards future plans, brokers said.Cotton dealers and spinners were conspicuous by their absence on the market. Reports suggest that spinners are faced with huge unsold stocks of cotton yarn particularly of fine count since large quantities are being imported from India.

Meanwhile, the current season is expected to wind up much earlier because currently third and last picking is going on. Due to short crop, the expected sized would not be more than 10.8 million bales.

The Karachi Cotton Association (KCA) spot rates were firm at overnight level at Rs8,700 per maund.

There was hardly any trading on the cotton market. Officially no transaction was reported to have transpired.

Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2019