KARACHI, March 21: Trading activity on the cotton market on Wednesday again slowed down as spinners and mills again withdrew to the sidelines followed by reports of fresh arrivals of the imported stuff.

Reports of mills’ absence from the ready market came followed by reports of six per cent increase in textile exports during the last month, reflecting that the lean period on the export front may be over, market sources said.

But what worried spinners is the perception of a short crop and its likely impact on prices at the fag-end of the season and fears of higher production costs could cut on their profit margins, they said.

According to market and spinning sources some of the leading textile groups have made large forward buying from different supplies to make up the local crop shortfall shipments against those in the pipeline.

There was, therefore, no trace of the overnight strong mill presence despite the fact that some of the ginners holding odd lots were inclined to clear their backlog of unsold stock around the current levels, floor brokers said.

Stray lots did changed hands but leading buyers were conspicuous by their absence apparently taking stock of their inventories before making fresh commitments, they added.

According to official figures spinners and mills have imported 69,000 bales of lint from various sources but market sources put the import figure so far at 0.250 million bales.

Official spot rates were again held unchanged at the last levels of Rs2,600 in the absence of positive feedback from the ready market.

New York cotton futures on the other hand were quoted lower by 0.41 and 0.44 cents per lb at 53.30 and 54.20 cents for both the ruling May and the forward July contracts, respectively.

Ready off-take was light totaling 2,500 bales, the following being some of the notable deals; 2,000 bales, upper Sindh at Rs2,625 to Rs2,675 and 100 bales, Khanpur at Rs2,675.