KARACHI, June 14: The trading activity on the cotton market on Thursday modestly picked up as some of the spinners resumed their covering operations.

Floor brokers said the recent heating up of the New York cotton futures and fresh increase in prices seem to have forced spinners and mills to be back on the market amid fears of sympathetic rise in local rates.

A big deal of 2,100 bales, from a southern Punjab ginnery at Rs2,700 per maund reflects that local ginners are in touch with the international markets as far as selling prices are concerned, they said.

Although unsold stocks with the ginners at 0.125m bales are well below the demand of the textile sector for the current year ending on August 31, are too small but prompt delivery is expected to lure spinners back on the market, they added.

Spinners and mills have been conspicuous by their absence for the last couple of weeks awaiting apparently the anticipated incentive package for the textile sector to boost exports are expected to resume normal trading in the coming sessions and in the process prices could rise modestly further higher, market sources said.

Unlike the previous sessions, most of the deals, both in Sindh and Punjab varieties were in the current crop, and no lower Sindh ginners offered forward sales of the new crop, they said.

Meanwhile, reports reaching here from the major cotton growing areas indicate that the sowing of the new crop has been completed well in time and the early sown cotton is progressing well and there are no reports of pest attack.

Official spot rates were again held unchanged at the last levels but well above the average rate at which some of the deals were finalised.

New York cotton futures on the other hand rose further by 0.84 and 0.85 cents per lb for both the ruling July and the new crop October contract at 52.44 and 56.15 cents, respectively.

Apart from a ready deal of 2,100 bales, Khanpur, at Rs2,700 per maund 300 bales and 273 bales of Sindh cotton were also traded at Rs2,550 per maund.