KARACHI, Dec 2: Physical business on the cotton market on Friday significantly shrank as both ginners and spinners kept to the sidelines apparently awaiting arrival figures of phutti for the fortnight ending Nov 30.

Ready business, which has been on the increase for the last couple of session, fell to a modest proportion partly owing to the absence of leading buyers and partly to a short Friday session.

Floor brokers said arrival figures were expected to be released by the Pakistan Ginners Association possibly tomorrow (Saturday), which would give a fair idea of the total crop and their impact on the prevailing prices.

Leading ginners, who have active sellers around the current level, took a technical pause amid the market talk of an increase in prices after the figures are released, they said.

The sentiment was also affected by conflicting reports about the import figures to be imported to make up possible shortfall in the local crop and related sector awaited consensus figure to be imported, some others said.

But ginners said there was no need of import of the foreign stuff at this stage when the size of the crop was not clear. The import talk could push prices of both lint and phutti lower to the disadvantage of growers, they said.

Most of the deals in the ready section were done well below Rs2,375 per maund, which were said to be lower than the parity level of the ginners. The growers on the other hand are not inclined to lower their asking prices below Rs1,100 per 40 kg.

Continued weakness of New York cotton futures on speculative selling triggered by reports of higher crop ideas in the US and India and falling world demand is also possible future negative factor despite a lower local crop, dealers said.

New York cotton futures suffered a fresh fall of 0.89 and 0.75 cent per lb at 48.30 and 51.53 cents for both the ruling December and forward March contracts, respectively.

But on the other hand, local spot rates were again held unchanged despite the fact that most of the deals were done well above them.

Mill ready offtake was light around 10,000 bales, the following being some of the notable deals among them: 1,000 bales, Bahawalnagar at Rs2,340 to Rs2,375; 1,000 bales, Ahmedpur East at Rs2,385; 1,000 bales, Sadiqabad and 1,400 bales, Rahimyar Khan at Rs2,375; 1,000 bales, Bahawalpur at Rs2,350 to Rs2,375; 1,000 bales, Yazman at Rs2,350; and 600 bales, Muridwala at 2,360 to 2,375.