KARACHI, Feb 7: The cotton market on Tuesday showed firm trend as fears of short supply continue to haunt spinners and mills amid an actively traded session for the second consecutive day.

Some of the leading spinner groups again indulged in panic buying and tried to lift all the lots offered by the ginners below Rs2,600 per maund, although leading ginners who hold bulk of the unsold stock of lint played safe, brokers said.

The general perception among ginners is that prices could rise further in the coming week if the spinners continued to indulge in panic buying in an apparent effort to grab the floating stock of fine lots, they said.

As a result, some big-lot business was witnessed in the Punjab variety as a leading group purchased 8,000 bales from DG Khan ginneries at the day’s top rate.

While bulk of the support remained confined to the premium lots, some of the inferior ones also came in for modest support as some of the mills purchased them to spin lower counts of cotton yarn.

Market sources attributed the current panic mill buying partly to fears about the forward supplies and partly to fresh export deals at much improved rates for both yarn and cloth.

“Most of the spinners and mills are said to be fully booked for the next quarter starting from April,” they said, adding: “Spinners and mills are not inclined to keep to the sidelines irrespective of higher asking prices as no one among them missed the shipment deadlines.”

Despite delivery problems owing to two holidays on Feb 8 and 9 on account of Ashura, the spinners were not inclined to take a breather and were willing to accept post-holiday delivery fearing further increase in prices.

Official spot rates were again held unchanged at Rs2,525 per maund, but in the ready section fine lots were sold at much higher prices.

New York cotton futures on the other hand rose by 0.24 and 0.12 cents per lb at 57.19 and 58.54 cents for both the ruling March and the distant May contracts, respectively, making imports and exports more expensive.

Ready offtake was active for the second session in a row amid active support and as a result another 20,000 bales changed hands as under: 8,000 bales, DG Khan at Rs2575; 1,000 bales, each Sadiqabad, upper Sindh, and 800 bales, Dunyiapur also at this rate; 4,000 bales, Ahmedpur East at Rs2,525 to Rs2,575; and 200 bales, inferior quality, Bahawalnagar at Rs2,500.