KARACHI: Sustained buying from big mills helped the cotton market maintain firm price structure on Tuesday. However, short supply of quality cotton kept trading volume from expanding.

According to market sources, major spinning groups which were heavily depending on imported cotton earlier are now rushing back to the market after facing some issues in payment from banks against their consignments.

Consequently, there has been a surge in cotton demand from big spinners as they are able to easily procure cotton from the local market as well as avail and one month credit — a win-win situation for them, brokers said.

The latest downward trend in rupee value against the US dollar has also forced many spinners to revert back to local cotton since importing the commodity would be costly, brokers added.

The world leading cotton markets closed with fresh gains particularly New York cotton which added around US1.5 cents per lb for each future contract. The Chinese and Indian cotton also closed firm.

The Karachi Cotton Association (KCA) spot rates were steady at overnight level at Rs8,600 per maund.

The following deals were reported to have changed hands on ready counter: 1,600 bales , station Sadiqabad, at Rs8,750-8,800; 400 bales , Burewala, at Rs8,600; 1,600 bales, Dera Ghazi Khan, at Rs8,600; 200 bales, Jahanian, at Rs8,400; and 1,700 bales , Khanewal, at Rs8,000.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2019