KARACHI, April 8: After a couple of sessions’ brisk activity, trading on the cotton market on Saturday slowed down partly because of delivery problems owing to a long weekend ahead. The market will remain closed on Tuesday on account of Eid Milad-un-Nabi (SAW) and Sunday being official closure. Brokers said normal activity was expected to be resumed by next Wednesday (April 12).

However, prices stayed stable as ginners seem to be in commanding positions in the backdrop of a short crop and the expanding mill demand to cover forward sales of textiles, including cotton yarn and cloth, they said.

“The TCP cotton tenders temporarily slow down physical trading as spinners and mills try to remain competitive in the open auction, but their bids sometimes did not match the benchmark rate of the TCP,” market sources said.

The TCP has floated its third tender for 30,000 bales and bids both from the local and foreign buyers will be opened on April 18.

Out of a buffer stock of half a million bales, the TCP has already disposed of a half of the total and after maintaining a modest buffer stock to meet any emergency, the balance will be sold before the arrival of new crop from the lower Sindh cotton belt.

But a leading cotton consultant said the local supplies might not match the mill consumption demand and after consuming the TCP stocks they have to import modest quantities to see the current season through.

Meanwhile, reports coming from the lower Sindh cotton belt suggest that the condition of the crop is good and picking operations of phutti are expected to be resumed by the end of the next month.

The new crop will be in the market by late June but it will be too small to meet the entire mill demand and fears of increase in prices toward the end of the season.

Official spot rates were again firmly held at the last close and stray business was reported well above them, notably from southern Punjab ginneries.

New York cotton futures on the other hand recovered in part the overnight losses and were quoted higher by 0.33 and 0.40 cents per lb at 53.97 and 55.85 cents for both the ruling May and the distant July contracts, respectively.

Ready business was light totalling about 3,000 bales, including 2,000 bales, Khairpur at Rs2,450.