KARACHI, Sept 2: Active trading was witnessed on the cotton market on Friday, as spinners remained active buyers of the new crop lint on falling prices. About 10,000 bales of the new crop changed hands both in the Sindh and Punjab varieties, as growers again indulged in panic selling for no apparent bearish background news, brokers said.

“Prices should have risen followed by reports that production target of 15m bales may not be achieved because of pest attack in some areas of the Punjab cotton belt, but instead it caused selling,” they said.

Prices of the Punjab variety were ruling on the higher side. The continued fall in the Sindh variety spilled over to Punjab and prices were also lowered from the recent average rate of Rs2,300 per maund.

Although the spinners and mills may not be in a short stock position, the attractively lower rates at which the ginners were active sellers again lured them back into the market, dealers said.

The prevailing panic among the growers and spinners reflects that the new crop is in line with the official estimate and the fears of a short crop below the last year may not be valid in the developing cotton situation, they said.

“At the beginning of new cotton season, conflicting rumours spread by the vested interest to benefit the campaign to push prices lower seem to be well in place,” they said.

Official spot rates were, therefore, lowered to Rs2,200, although some of the deals in the ready section were done well below them.

New York cotton futures on the other hand staged a modest rally and recovered 0.14 and 0.20 cents at 48.29 and 49.94 cents per lb, respectively, for both the ruling October and December contracts.

Ready business was on the higher side as ginners remained active sellers around the current levels, the following are some of the notable deals, which were gone through:

SINDH VARIETY: 2,400 bales, Mirpurkhas at Rs2,100 to Rs2,175; 600 bales, Tando Adam at Rs2,125; 400 bales, Tando Allahyar at Rs2,160 to Rs2,200; 400 bales, Shahdadpur at Rs2,200 to Rs2,215; and 200 bales, each Jhole and Sanghar at Rs2,200.