KARACHI: Trading volume on the cotton market came down as buyers remained on the sidelines on Friday. Slow off-take of cotton yarn and little demand arising from textile spinners kept proceedings slow.

According to market sources most spinners have met their cotton demand and are now restricting their buying activity.

Furthermore a sudden decline in cotton yarn demand ahead of Ramazan — when overall trading activity slows down — is keeping buyers away from the trading ring.

However, some brokers believed that big textile spinners started to focus on procuring cotton from abroad as duty withdrawal on cotton imports comes to an end from June 30, 2019.

The official spot rates of cotton were also adjusted downward by Rs50 to Rs8,850 per maund.

Meanwhile, world cotton markets also closed easy under the lead of New York cotton market where all the future contracts lost over US1 cent per lb on strong dollar and lesser exports.

The following deals were reported to have changed hands on ready counter: 1,600 bales, station Sukkur, at Rs8,550; 600 bales, Rahim Yar Khan, at Rs8,875-8,900; and 400 bales, Shujabad, at Rs8,800.

Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2019