KARACHI, Aug 1: Trading on the cotton market on Monday resumed on a sluggish note as spinners and mills were conspicuous by their absence apparently awaiting acceptance or otherwise of the bids against the TCP tender. The TCP has floated tender for both local and foreign buyers for 82,000 bales of lint cotton, which opened on Moday (Aug 1), but details of the rates and sales were not immediately available.

But market sources said as the spinners and mills had already covered their forward positions against foreign sales of textiles, most of them were not that enthusiastic as they had been some weeks before and they might have further lowered their bid prices.

“The TCP is close to its sale target, out of its total stocks of 1.6m bales, as the government has directed it to stop further auctions after Aug 15,” they said. It could well prove the forerunner of the last TCP auction and in normal market conditions the spinners have been active buyers, but they are now overstuffed after having purchased 0.8m bales from it and 12m bales from the ginners, they said.

Moreover, some of the spinners and mills are opting for the new crop from the lower Sindh, which is a bit cheaper as compared to the TCP reference prices. Meanwhile, reports coming from the lower Sindh cotton belt indicate that Sunday’s rain will further cause delay in the picking operations of phutti, leading to pressure on nearby supplies of the new lint.

However, encouraging reports about steady growth of the new crop in central and upper Sindh and Punjab cotton belts show that the target of 15m bales is expected to be achieved.

The notably feature was that there was no report of serious pest attack in any part of the cotton belt where the weather continued to be mostly hot and kills insects promptly, the market source said.

Official spot rates, therefore, remained pegged at the last close of Rs2,350 per maund in the absence of ready demand.

Some of the brokers’ modest deals of both old and new crops around the official spot rates as an absence of strong mill demand did not allow the ginners to raise their asking prices.