KARACHI, Oct 14: Physical business on the cotton market on Saturday was fairly active as spinners and mills lifted all the lots offered for sale by the ginners on an average rate of Rs2,425.

An idea of mill buying may well be had from the fact that about 20,000 bales changed hands but some leading floor brokers put the figure around 30,000 bales.

“In normal crop season, there are more than one instance that 0.1m bales changed hands in a single session,” said a leading broker, adding: “Spinners and mills’ hands were full with export orders at that time.”

For the second session in a row, most of the lots depending on quality were sold below Rs2,450 per maund and some inferior lots at around Rs2,375.

Spinners attributed the hectic mill buying to quality war among them as contenders are out to corner the fine lots meant for higher counts of cotton yarn before it is too late.

However, daily brisk mill ready offtake reflects that the current price is in line with their export parity levels, although fears of short supply are still lurking in their mind, brokers said.

The arrival figures of phutti for the fortnight ending Oct 15 are due next week and indications are that they will give a fair idea of the future outlook both in terms of output and price levels.

Official spot rates were again held unchanged at Rs2,400 per maund but in the ready section most of the deals were done well above them.

New York cotton futures on the other hand posted a fresh modest rise of 0.08 and 0.24 cents at 49.01 and 52.47 cents per lb for both the ruling December and the forward March contracts respectively on rising foreign demand.

Ready business was on the higher side amounting to 20,000 bales, the following being notable deals:

SINDH VARIETY: 1,000 bales, Nawabshah, 2,000 bales, Shahdadpur at Rs2,400; 1,000 bales, Tando Ghulam Muhammad, at Rs2,375 to Rs2,425; 1,000 bales, Khairpur at Rs2,425; 1,000 bales, Sultanabad at Rs2,390; 400 bales, Daulatpur at Rs2,400; 600 bales, each Mirpurkhas and Sanghar at Rs2,375 to Rs2,390.