KARACHI, Nov 30: Cotton prices on Wednesday remained stable around the previous levels as spinners and mills continued to make fresh commitments amid brisk trading. “There was a virtual scramble for each lot, notably of fine quality as spinners were trying to build-up long positions at the current levels fearing further increase in prices owing to market talk of a short crop”, brokers said.

The mill off-take though was still far below the normal daily volume in active sessions was reminiscent of a bull market in hectic season and ginners hope the daily mill intake could rise to 50,000 bales in the coming days, they said.

Some big deals amounting to 4,000 and 5,000 bales reflect that both sellers and buyers are out to oblige each other, the former having larger unsold stocks and the latter in a effort to cover supply gaps.

Ginners holding long unsold positions were a bit worried over the falling demand as massive stocks have a negative impact on their financial position. About Rs25 billion are tied to the unsold stock of lint.

The sudden pick up in mill demand shows some positive developments on the export front and resumption of yarn buying by the ancillary industry, brokers said.

“The pick up in cotton yarn export could significantly add to the purchasing power of the mills and spinners”, market sources said, adding “but spinners fear heavy mill buying could well mean a price flare-up”.

They said the arrival figures of phutti into the ginneries are due during the current week and they are expected to set the future market direction as they will give a fair idea of the total crop and a shortfall.

Official spot rates were again held unchanged but in the ready section bulk of the business was done well above them.

New York cotton futures on the other hand resisted fresh decline and recovered 0.13 and 0.16 cents at 48.85 and 51.31 cents per lb for both the ruling December and forward March contracts respectively.

Ready business was fairly active totalling about 25,000 bales, all from the Punjab ginneries. The following are some of the notable deals: 4,000 bales, Bahawalpur and 5,000 bales, Ahmedpur East at Rs2,375 to Rs2,400, 1,000 bales each, Nurpur, Sadiqabad, Mailsi, 800 bales, Faqirwali, 200 bales, each Jalalpur, Kassowal and Khanewal, 400 bales Hasilpur, and 2,000 bales, Rahimyar Khan at Rs2,400, 1,000 bales, Sahiwal, 1,000 bales, Yazman, 200 bales, Chistian, 600 bales, Burewala and 400 bales, Muridwala at Rs2,375 and 400 bales, Mian Channu at Rs2,415.