KARACHI: Trading remained slow on the cotton market on Friday as spinners were reluctant to enter into big-lot deals ahead of long closure on account of Eidul Azha amid forecast of heavy rainfall.

Also the ginners did not lift phutti fearing expected rains could hamper their operations and may damage the quality of ginned cotton due to storage problems.Brokers said that textile units have already started to explore avenues for importing long staple cotton and fine count yarn from other countries minus India.

The world’s leading cotton markets also gave a mixed to easy trend. The New York cotton futures pared some of the recent losses while Indian lint prices declined further despite shortage of crop.

The Karachi Cotton Association (KCA) kept its spot rates steady at overnight level of Rs8,750 per maund.

The following deals were reported to have changed hands on the ready counter: 1,200 bales, Tando Adam, at Rs7,700-7,800; 1,000 bales, Sanghar, at Rs7,700-7,800; 800 bales, Mirpurkhas, at Rs7,700-7,800; 600 bales, Shahdadpur, at Rs7,750-7,800; 600 bales, Khanewal, at Rs8,100; 200 bales, Ahmedpur East, at Rs8,000 and 600 bales, Chichawatni at Rs8,000.

Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2019