MULTAN: Trading on the cotton market remained slow on Friday as sellers mostly stayed away from big deals.

The Karachi Cotton Association, however, kept its spot rates pegged at Rs8,900 per maund.

There was an increase of Rs50-75 in the prices of phutti (seed cotton). Cotton price also went up by Rs50-100 after Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) issued its annual production report which noted a fall of 20.77 per cent as compared to last year.

Cotton experts said that though buyers are ready to pay higher prices for quality cotton, however sellers are avoiding entering deals.

Meanwhile, the PCGA figures show the 8.15 million bales reached ginning factories between Jan 1, 2019 to Jan 1, 2020. This shows a fall of 2.14m bales — or 20.77pc — when compared to the 10.27m bales which reached ginning units in the year before.

In Punjab, 4.69m bales reached ginning factories in the abovementioned period as compared to 6.173m bales a year ago, showing a fall of 23.84pc which translates into 1.469m bales.

Sindh saw a fall of 16.18pc this year as 3.45m bales came to the ginning factories compared to last year’s 4.11m bales.

According to the PCGA report issued, 7.965m bales were produced out of which textile sector purchased 6.99m bales while exporters purchased 54,630 bales. During the year, 304 ginning factories remained functional.

The following deals were reported to have changed hands on ready counter on Friday: 600 bales, station Rahim Yar Khan, at Rs9,150; 400 bales, Fort Abbas, at Rs9,700; 1,000 bales, Kot Sabzal, at Rs9,125; and 1,800 bales, Liaquatpur, at Rs8,500.

Published in Dawn, January 4th, 2020