KARACHI, Dec 30: Cotton market on Friday passed through a cheerless session as buyers and sellers kept to the sidelines as their price ideas failed to find a meeting ground.

Floor brokers said some of the weaker links of the leading ginners, who still hold long unsold positions, were inclined to sell around the prevailing rate of Rs2,400 but spinners were not too enthusiastic for meeting fresh commitments even at the lower offering.

“Higher freight rates being quoted by the cargo haulers from the upcountry destinations to the city have relatively made lint a bit expensive and spinners and mills are not inclined to go beyond their export parity levels at this stage”, they said.

Moreover, old account closing by both the spinners and ginners also proved an inhibiting factor for financial reasons and bank closure on next Monday on account of new year in lieu of Sunday.

Ginners said that the physical activity may remain a bit dull during the sessions before the upcoming Eid holidays but they were not inclined to indulge in hasty selling at any stage.

Some others said that the arrival figures of phutti into the ginneries, due next week, were expected to revive modest mill buying depending on the size of the total.

Meanwhile, reports coming from the local yarn market indicate that rates of various counts of cotton yarn are stable as the intake of ancillary industry is on the higher side despite reports of some problems on the export front of made-ups.

Market sources said that local yarn prices had improved on active buying by the leading end-product users against their new year export commitments.

Official spot rates were, therefore, held unchanged at the previous levels in the absence of latest feedback from the ready market.

New York cotton futures on the other hand reacted from the recent highs and fell by 0.42 and 0.32 cents at 53.65 and 54.34 cents per lb for both the ruling March and the forward May contracts respectively.

Ready business remained at low ebb as buyers and sellers did not make many fresh commitments in view of the close of the year.

But late in the evening a leading broker said about 3,000 bales from the southern Punjab ginneries changed hands around Rs2,400. All the deals went to the credit of Punjab spinners.