MULTAN: The cotton market remained steady on Thursday as sustained buying from some needy textile spinners flowed in throughout the day. However, ginners kept trading restricted. The Karachi Cotton Association increased it spot rate by Rs50 at Rs8,750.

Brokers said that although there were queries from millers, ginners are willing to mark time till after Eidul Fitr in the hopes of reasonable increase in cotton price.

Spinners want to buy the commodity due to two reasons — firstly less stocks of quality lint are available with the ginners and secondly the upcoming Eid vacations as the trading activities will remain suspended for about one week. Small quantities of new phutti (seed cotton) arrival were also reported from some cotton growing areas. Prices of 40kg phutti in Gulchari were quoted at Rs3,900 while in Kunri and Jhadu it was Rs4,000.

The following deals were reported to have transpired on ready counter: 2,000 bales, station Daharki, at Rs8,850; 1,600 bales, Rahim Yar Khan, at Rs8,800; 400 bales, Bahawalpur, at Rs8,825; 200 bales (low quality), Sakrand, at Rs7,700; and 200 bales, Alipur, at Rs8,900.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2019