KARACHI, May 5: Cotton market on Saturday lacked normal trading interest as spinners and mills kept to the sidelines in an apparent effort to forestall increase in prices in the backdrop of latest unsold figures.

The unsold figure of 0.408 million bales is far below the mills needs for the final quarter of the current season and before the arrival of new crop from the lower Sindh cotton belt, which could cause price flare-up if spinners indulged in panic buying, market sources said.

Ready off-take was again the victim as ginners were not inclined to lower their asking prices while spinners and mills played safe and did not bid for any lot.

“The current battle of wits between the contenders is expected to continue for another couple of weeks before spinners resume normal trading activity,” says a leading floor broker.

He said spinners needs lint despite the fact that they are supplementing their stocks through imports, but they will still need local stuff for some specific purposes to produce products for special foreign buyers.

Some of the leading spinners and mills have since Aug 31, 2006, imported lint totaling 0.323m bales, including 50,180 bales in March this year from various sources.

The total also includes long staple lint used to produce fine cotton yarn and fabrics.

Meanwhile, reports reaching here from the cotton-belt indicate that sowing of the new crop in lower Sindh has almost been completed while early sowing in Sindh and Punjab has just started.

The sowing of new crop in the major areas is expected to be completed by June 15 which is considered best period for a healthy crop.

The notable feature of the new crop will be sowing of high yielding BT variety on commercial scale allowed officially from the current season, although acreage under it still to be known.

Official spot rates were, therefore, again firmly held at the previous level of Rs2,700.00 per maund in the absence of physical business on the ready counter.

New York cotton futures on the other hand posted fresh modest fall of 0.20 and 0.12 cents per lb at 46.30 and 48.28 for both the ruling May and the forward July contracts, respectively.

Although some brokers said stray lots did change hands around Rs2,800.00, there was no official confirmation of any deal.