KARACHI, March 22: Trading on the cotton market on Wednesday remained light as spinners and mills kept to the sidelines owing perhaps to delivery problems because of Pakistan Day holiday. Floor brokers said some of the spinners offered to buy stay lots around Rs2,400 or slightly above but ginners holding large unsold stocks were not inclined to lower their asking prices below Rs2,450.

They said that ginners had already exhausted stocks of low-mic lint early this year and now bulk of the unsold stocks were of fine quality ginned from higher grade of phutti.

“The purchase prices of phutti late last year was slightly above Rs1,100 per maund and after adding overheads the net selling prices came to Rs2,450 to Rs2,500,” they said, adding “we are holding on to our positions hoping an increase in prices before the new crop from lower Sindh cotton belt arrives on the market”.

Spinners were also not so keen to come to their competitive asking prices as they hoped to get more supplies from the TCP sales at slightly lower rates and hence the stalemate.

However, market sources said owing to steady exports the incident of piling of stocks of cotton yarn was on the lower side thanks to a judicious combination of active local and foreign demand.

Unsold stocks held by the ginners were progressively declining as some of the spinners were in the market and lifting modest quantities of lint to cover their forward positions around Rs2,450 per maund.

Meanwhile, reports coming in from the ancillary industry indicate that supplies of cotton yarn of various counts were available on the open market at competitive prices.

Official spot rates were, therefore, again held unchanged in the absence of feedback from the open market, although some of the deals were done above them.

New York cotton futures on the other hand remained under pressure in the absence of strong foreign demand and shed another 0.30 and 0.25 cents at 53.21 and 54.52 cents per lb for both the ruling May and the distant July contracts respectively. Ready off-take was light totalling 2,000 bales, from upper Sindh ginneries at Rs2,450.