KARACHI, April 28: Cotton market showed quietly steady trend on Friday but mills offtake remained selective as some of the leading spinners lifted fine lots from the southern Punjab cotton belt.

But unconfirmed reports said leading spinner groups purchased all the lots offered for sales by the southern Punjab ginners, although bulk of it went to the credit of central Punjab textile mills, brokers said.

Unlike the overnight session, when spinners covered their forward positions against foreign sales, they were a bit conscious apparently having in view the price factor, they added.

“No one could deny the fact spinners and mills still needs more supplies to meet their annual consumption demand before the new crop arrives,” market sources said adding ”but they have to maintain a balance between the local rates and their export parity levels.”

According to them unsold stocks with the ginners are slightly above half a million bales and they are not sufficient to meet the textile sector demand even for the near-term.

The final crop figures including the unsold ones with the ginners would be released by the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) early next week but they may not add significantly to the total.

However, indications are that TCP is expected to float another tender for the sale of cotton during the next month, which in turn could significantly to the mill inventories and relieve pressure on supplies.

New York cotton futures failed to hold on to overnight gains and fell by 0.90 and 0.72 cents per lb at 49.10 and 50.75 cents per lb for both the ruling May and forward July contracts.

Official spot rates on the other hand remained basically unchanged from the overnight level and stood unchanged at Rs2425.

Ready offtake was light totalling 4,000 bales as under: 1000 bales, Dadu at Rs2,350 and 2,200 bales, Khanpur at 2,475.