KARACHI, Jan 31: Moderate trading was witnessed on the cotton market on Thursday as some of the spinners resumed their covering operations against forward sales of cotton yarn.

But their major thrust was on the inferior types used to spin lower counts of cotton yarn for both the local and the export markets. According to market sources the rates for the inferior types are in line with the world prices of low counts of cotton yarn for which demand is picking up.

As far as the higher counts of yarn are concerned their orders are far below normal at this time of the season and until they pick up the demand for the lint may not pick, they added.

The physical business, therefore, remained light despite the fact that price ideas of both the sellers and buyers have found the meeting ground.

Floor brokers said although details of daily purchases of exporters are not immediately available, unofficial figures claim leading among them have active during the current month and have covered their forward positions against foreign sales.

However, as their chief interest is largely confined to inferior types of lint available at much lower rates, their presence did not influence the price trend, they say.

Meanwhile, spinners are awaiting the arrival figures of phutti for the fortnight ending Jan 31, which could set the price trend for the market follow during the next couple of weeks.

“Much will depend on the size of unsold stocks lying with the ginners, which could well prove a market factor both for the ginners and the spinners”, dealers said.

For the third session in a row, official spot rates for the lint remained pegged at the previous closing level.

Ready offtake was relatively large as till late in the evening about 10,000 bales changed hands as reported by a leading broker Naseem Usman.

SINDH TYPE: 500 bales, seedstuff, Sanghar at Rs1,575, 400 bales at Rs1,450, 3,157 bales, Nawabshah at Rs1,525.