KARACHI, May 18: Cotton market on Friday remained under pressure as some of the ginners holding odd lots further lowered their asking prices but there were no matching buying offers.

Some ginners who were holding back their stocks in anticipation of price flare-up based on short supplies hastened to sell at lower prices in the backdrop of downward revision of official spot rates by the KCA, brokers said.

The perception that lint prices will shoot up at the fag-end of the season seems to have no relevance to the ground realities in the back drop of allowing lint imports from India through Wagah border by the government, they said.

But the panic among the ginners, who still hold about 0.250m bales, despite higher New York cotton futures seems to have worked against their holding capacity as was reflected by lower prices they were now offering, market sources observed.

However, spinners did not indulge in hasty buying at the lower prices and are anticipating further fall as ginners strong foothold on the unsold stock has considerably been weakened by their absence from the market, they added.

Stray lots did change hands but mostly at the spinners’ options as they appeared to be very selective for reasons not immediately known.

Meanwhile, spinners and mills were said to be busy probing the world markets and according to some spinners a good number of forward deals had already been finalised.

The current persistent increase in the New York cotton futures was reflective of the fact that world prices were steadily rising after the entry of local spinners into the import market, said a leading spinner.

New York cotton futures posted fresh gains of 0.40 and 0.37 cents per lb at 49.59 and 52.40 cents for both the ruling July and the distant October settlements respectively.

Local official spot rates on the other hand were quoted lower by Rs25 per maund at Rs2,650.

Ready business was light totalling 2,000 bales as under: 500 bales, each Haroonabad and Vehari at Rs2,300-Rs2,350 and Rs2,700 respectively and 800 bales, Lodhran at Rs2,640.