KARACHI: The cotton market turned listless on Thursday as buyers took to the sidelines ahead of banks’ closing on December 31 and shortage of funds.

Barring a few deals originating from some needy mills, the market generally lacked trading activity. Short supply of quality cotton continued to disappoint textile spinners.

Thick fog in Punjab has halted the cotton picking process which in turn has also led to ginners slowing down their operations, brokers said.

However, there are strong indications that cotton prices will surge in coming days as supply of quality lint would further decline in front of rising demand from textile spinners, analysts said.

Meanwhile, big spinning groups have already booked substantial quality of cotton for imports. There are rumors in the market that the government may remove duty and taxes on import of cotton.

World leading cotton markets gave mixed to steady trend with New York cotton prices moving higher in anticipation of higher imports from Beijing under the US-China trade negotiations.

The Karachi Cotton Association (KCA) spot rates were firm at weekend level at Rs8,800 per maund.

The following deals were reported to have changed hands on ready counter: 1,000 bales, station Daharki, at Rs9,150; 1,000 bales, Rahim Yar Khan, at Rs9,000; 400 bales, Haroonabad, at Rs8,900 (seed); 200 bales, Marrot, at Rs8,500; 400 bales, Fort Abbas, at Rs8,500; and 400 bales, Ghazi Abbas, at Rs8,950.

Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2019