KARACHI, Nov 18: Brisk trading was witnessed on the cotton market on Saturday as spinners and mills tried to grab the floating stock of lint amid rising prices.

An idea of price flare-up may well had from the fact that some of the deals in the Punjab variety were done around Rs2,485 per maund and brokers said ginners may be eyeing the level beyond Rs2,500 possibly by the next week.

“Haunted by fears of a short crop, spinners and mills are not inclined to involve in import business for the time being and opted to buy the local stuff even at the rising prices,” said a leading broker.

On an official account about 40,000 bales changed hands but he said the figure was close to 100,000 bales as leading groups having enormous financial funding at their disposal were out to corner the entire ginned stocks at the current levels.

“Rising prices indicate that a price war has already started among the leading textile groups to build up long positions and in the process prices are rising each session,” ginners said.

Floor brokers said cotton trade appears to be in the tight grip of the growers who have considerably slow down the arrival of phutti into the ginneries, which in turn has increased prices of both phutti and lint.

Some of them are in a bit haste to clear cotton fields for sowing wheat and had completed the final picking of phutti but are holding it back to push prices further, they said.

Meanwhile, private sector exporters have registered export contracts for another 10,000 bales of lint sold to various foreign import houses, the total exports up to Nov 15 stood at 72,378 bales.

Official spot rates were, therefore, again held unchanged at Rs2,400 but in physical trading fine lots were traded at much higher prices.

New York cotton futures on the other hand stayed weak as both the contracts posted fall of 0.48 and 0.25 cents at 47.40 and 51.15 cents per lb for both the ruling December and the distant March settlements respectively.

Ready business was maintained on the higher side as about 40,000 bales changed hands, the following being some of the important deals.

SINDH VARIETY: 1,000 bales Shahdadpur at Rs2,400, 2,000 bales, Khairpur at Rs2,390-2,400, 600 bales, Tando Adam at Rs2,350-2,375, 600 bales, Sanghar at Rs2,350 and 600 bales, Khipro at Rs2,340.