KARACHI, March 1: Cotton market on Wednesday resisted fresh decline as some of the spinners resumed their covering operations at the overnight lower levels amid actively traded session.

Some of the leading spinners and mills were active buyers of fine lots both from the upper Sindh and southern Punjab ginneries and as a result some big-lot business was witnessed at the higher rates, brokers said.

Two big lots one from the upper Sindh and the other from the southern Punjab consisting of 4,000 and 3,000 bales were done at the day’s highest level of Rs2,575 per maund, but inferior lots were sold well below them.

Floor brokers said the future market trend will largely be guided by the arrival figures of phutti for the fortnight ending Feb 28, as they will give a fair idea of supply and demand.

Indications are that the total crop may not touch the high mark of 13m bales but the season is certainly expected to end around the revised official figure of 12.5 million bales, they said.

And together with import of foreign lint last year and unsold stock of half a million bales held by the TCP, spinners are pretty sure that they could sea the year through without any crisis of supply or price flare-up, predicts a leading spinner.

But spinners and mills appear to be in no hurry to indulge in panic buying in an apparent effort to contain prices below Rs2,600 per maund, which conform to their export parity levels, they said.

Meanwhile, reports coming from the textile sector indicate that sailing on the export front are fairly steady and leading spinners and mills are fully booked for the next two quarters ending June 30, 2006.

Official spot rates were held unchanged at the last levels but most of the deals in the ready section were done well above them.

New York cotton futures on the other hand rose by 0.55 and 0.42 cents at 56.00 and 55.44 cents per lb for both the matured March and the ruling May contract respectively.

About 10,000 bales changed hands in the ready section, some of them being as under: 4,000 and 3,000 bales, upper Sindh and Khanpur at Rs2,575, 2,000 bales, Bahawalpur at Rs2,550 and 600 bales, Kehror Pacca at Rs2,475.