KARACHI, July 12: Physical activity on the cotton market on Tuesday failed to significantly pick up but some brokers said some of the spinners who did not take part in TCP auctions managed to cover positions in the central Sindh variety.

However, the size of ready off-take was not that big and confined to a few hundred bales but sold at the higher rates of Rs2,2500 and 2,300.25 per maund in sympathy with the reference price of the TCP in its recent auction, dealers said.

The TCP has in its Monday’s auction got a fair price well above Rs2,400 per maund for 85,000 bales on sales as leading spinner groups had completely withdrawn from the local market and were relying on TCP auctions, they said.

There are also reports of inter-mill dealings as those who have surplus stocks are obliging their counterparts both on cash and kind basis at the higher rates.

Floor brokers said despite a bumper crop of over 14m bales, mills and spinners still need a lot of more lint to honour their forward export commitments for the new fiscal.

“Their active participation in the TCP weekly auction reflects that they are full with the export orders for textiles and the covering operations reflect the intensity of supply and demand,” they said

Both the TCP and those ginners who still hold modest stocks are the chief beneficiary of the developing situation on the cotton front amid higher purchasing rates, some other said.

Meanwhile, reports reaching here from the lower Sindh cotton belt indicate that some of the ginners are expected to resume ginning operations during the next couple of sessions as sufficient stocks of phutti has reached their ginneries.

Indications are that new crop lint is expected to be on the market by early next month but rates may be a bit higher amid supplies. By that time TCP may have touched its annual sale figure of about 0.7m bales.

Official spot rates did not show any change and were held at the overnight level of 2,325 per maund but on the other hand New York cotton futures suffered modest fall of 0.65 and 0.46 cents per lb at 53.15 and 55.01 cents per lb for both the ruling October and the distant December settlements respectively.