KARACHI, Sept 16: Physical trading on the cotton market on Friday remained relatively slow, as ginners indulged in selective selling in an apparent effort to forestall further fall in prices.

Ready offtake was slow as compared to the previous couple of sessions as the ginners held on to their unsold positions and raised a bit their asking prices in sympathy with phutti rates, brokers said.

The recent rain in the lower Sindh cotton belt has slowed down the arrivals of phutti into ginneries because of suspension of picking operations, they said.

In wet fields of cotton, pickers are not allowed to resume picking operations as the quality of lint and fibre gets damaged owing to moisture. Moreover, according to reports reaching here, growers have also raised their selling prices well above the official support price of Rs925 per 40 kg.

“The current erratic price movements of New York cotton futures have a negative impact on other markets, including local one,” ginners said. “We have operated under international parity levels as spinners are not inclined to go beyond for their export parity problems.”

New York cotton futures fell further by 0.56 and 0.44 cents per lb for both the ruling October and the distant December settlements at 48.04 and 49.50 cents, respectively.

Meanwhile, some of the private sector exporters have physically shipped 23,094 bales of lint to foreign countries, according to official figures, but they are no conspicuous by the absence on the local market because of uncertain future price outlook and importers’ reluctance to seek further supplies.

As a result, there was a relative calm on the export front as lint was also not ready available at competitive rates, exporters said.

The official spot rates were again held unchanged at the overnight level of Rs2,150 per maund for the third session in a row in line with the ready section.

Ready business was light totalling 6,000 bales, the following being some of the notable deals:

SINDH VARIETY: 1,200 bales and 600 bales, Kot Ghulam Muhammad and 400 bales, Khidro at Rs2,175; 200 bales, Mirpurkhas at Rs2,165; and 400 bales, Shahpur Chakkar at Rs2,160 to Rs2,170.