KARACHI, Feb 24: Cotton market on Saturday showed steady trend but physical business failed to pick up as price ideas of both the seller and the buyer were poles apart, analysts said.

While ginners are entertaining higher price ideas on the basis of a short crop and higher New York cotton futures, spinners and mills are eyeing official nod to allow import from India, they said.

“Indian lint may not be that cheaper” says a leading spinner “but its quality will enhance our competitiveness on the world textile front.”

“Moreover, New York cotton futures currently ruling around 55 cents per lb are much higher as compared to quotations received by some of us from the Indian exporters, which will add significantly to our overheads,” they added.

Floor brokers said ginners are awaiting the release of final crop figures by the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) early next month and they will allow both the buyer and the seller to readjust their priorities based on supply and demand factors.

However, the relative calm on the ready front may not suit the developing situation on the supply and demand front to spinners and mills and their weaker links may be adversely hit amid rising prices, they added.

That is perhaps leading ginners from the southern Punjab cotton belt, who hold bulk of the unsold stock, are not in a hurry and sold only those lots, which are in line with their parity levels.

Meanwhile, on the export front some of the private sector exporters have physically shipped 25,459 bales against their forward deals to various destinations during the last month, making the total exports up to January to 0.158 million bales, comprising of both new and old crops.

Official spot rates were again quoted unchanged at the last level of Rs5,525 in the absence of any feedback from the ready section where mill off-take remained slow.

New York cotton futures on the other hand rose by 0.38 and 0.43 cents at 55.33 and 53.60 cents per lb for both the maturing March and the distant May settlements, respectively.

Ready off-take was modest totaling 7,000 bales as under: 5,000 bales, Gothki, Mirpur Mathelo and Daharki at Rs2,625, 200 bales, Dadu at Rs2,435 and 1,000 bales, Rahimyar Khan at 2,590.