KARACHI, Jan 23: Cotton market on Tuesday showed firm trend as ginners were not inclined to lower their asking prices from the current levels, notably for fine lots.

While inferior types were traded between Rs2,450 and Rs2,550 per maund most of the deals in quality lots were finalised above Rs2,600 per maund, the highest being Rs2,625.

However, spinners and mills have significantly curtailed their daily intake in apparent effort to contain further rise in prices and are awaiting official nod on import of lint from India, brokers said.

“It appears to be a difficult year for the textile industry owing to higher local prices and tough competition on the foreign markets,” they said.

The textile industry is seeking government’s help to bail itself out from the crisis-like situation, which could have negative impact on the export front, they said.

Meanwhile, some of the leading spinners and mills are making enquiries for competitive lint imports to bridge the supply gap to meet their annual consumption needs.

Official spot rates were again held unchanged at the last level of Rs2,550 for average quality lots but fine lint was traded at much higher rate.

New York cotton futures on the other hand suffered modest decline of 0.16 and 0.31 cents at 51.09 and 55.17 cents per lb for both the ruling March and forward May contracts respectively.

Ready off-take was modest totalling 10,000 bales as under:

SINDH TYPE: 2,000 bales, Shahdadpur at Rs2,500-2,550, 1,600 bales, Sanghar at Rs2,485-2,525, 3,000 bales, upper Sindh at Rs2,590-2,600 and 800 bales, Kot Ghulam Muhammad at Rs2,500.