KARACHI, April 11: Trading activity on the cotton market on Wednesday remained cheerless as spinners were not enthusiastic buyers at the higher asking prices owing to their export parity levels.

Stray lots did change hands as needy among them purchased some fine lots to produce blended yarn and fabrics for their export markets, floor brokers said.

During the last couple of weeks some of the leading spinners and mills have increased the use of polyester fibre to cut on higher overheads caused by increase in local lint prices, they said.

According to textile sources to meet the foreign demand for blended fabrics and yarn, some of the leading mills are using 30 to 40 per cent polyester yarn, which makes their product a bit competitive on the export front.

Market sources said owing to a number of adverse factors on the world markets, the local textile industry was facing a number of problems both on the local and export fronts.

While on the other hand higher lint prices because of a short crop had limited their manoeuvring capacity on the export front owing partly to higher inputs, they added.Unconfirmed reports say some of the spinners have already shut down their operations, while others have cut number of shifts to keep the wheels moving.

Official spot rates were again held unchanged at the last level of Rs2,725 per maund for the third session in a row.

New York cotton futures on the other hand posted fresh fractional fall of 0.12 and 0.13 cents at 51.69 and 53.42 cents per lb for both the ruling May and the distant July contracts respectively.

The following are some of the deals, which changed hands on Wednesday: 2,000 bales, upper Sindh at Rs2,725 to Rs2,735 and 2,000 bales, Rahimyar Khan at Rs2,800.