KARACHI, July 13: Trading activity on the cotton market on Thursday was light as spinners and mills did not resume their new fiscal buying apparently awaiting decline in the ruling prices.

A forward deal of 400 bales new crop from a Mirpurkhas ginnery at Rs2,450 per maund for Sept 1 delivery was reported indicating that the spinners entertain lower price ideas after arrivals get normal.

Meanwhile, reports coming from the major cotton growing areas indicate that five ginneries, two in lower Sindh and three in central Punjab have resumed ginning operations on modest scale.

Others may join them after new crop picking operations resume in the other areas.In central Punjab picking operations of early sown phutti have resumed and ginneries in Chichawatni, Sahiwal and Burewala are said to be in operations.

However, spinners, in an apparent effort to push prices lower, kept to the sidelines for most of the time despite the fact that they still needed lint.

But, brokers said ginners having modest unsold stocks were a little worried over the tactical absence of spinners from the market and were not inclined to oblige them after lowering their asking prices.

“Spinners and mills appear to be fighting on two front,” says a broker, adding “on the one hand they did not oblige the TCP to revise their bids upward against the current tender and keeping off from market to outwit ginners on the other”.

Official spot rates were again held unchanged at the overnight level of Rs2,575 per maund, although some of the deals in the ready section were done below them owing to quality factors.

Ready off-take was light totalling 1,200 bales, both from the central Sindh and Punjab ginneries but details of rates at which deals were finalised were not immediately available.