MULTAN: Slow trading was witnessed on the cotton market on Wednesday as ginners are not in a hurry sell their stocks, anticipating a price increase in near future. The Karachi Cotton Association kept its spot rate unchanged at Rs9,000.

Cotton analyst Naseem Usman said that monthly consumption of Pakistani mills is about 1.3 million bales while only 0.6m unsold stocks are available with the ginners which will hardly fulfill the requirements for 15 days.

Prime Minister Imran Khan announced some measures to increase cotton production, the government has so far been failed to resolve the electricity tariff for industry, he said. Textile industry exports were going to be good but now the decision of government to withdraw the subsidy will affect the sector badly, he added.

Cotton expert Syed Muddabir Shah said the government is not focused on ensuring the availability of quality seed and announcement of support prices for cotton.

He said that the country would have to import $3 billion worth of cotton if the government fails to import quality seed of not more than of $300m.

The following deals were reported to have changed hands on ready counter: 400 bales, station Rahim Yar Khan, at Rs9,100; 400 bales, Khanpur, at Rs8,900; 200 bales, Bahawalpur, at Rs8,725; 200 bales, Faqirwali, at Rs8,600; 200 bales, Dera Ghazi Khan, at Rs9,125; 200 bales, Taunsa Sharif, at Rs8,400; and 400 bales, Bahawalnagar, at Rs8,350.

Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2020