KARACHI, Aug 1: Cotton market on Wednesday maintained a bullish trend as ginners further raised their asking prices after spinners and mills increased their intake. As a result, some of the fine lots from the central Punjab cotton were traded at decade’s best level of Rs3,200 per maund and some brokers predicted that an upward pressure on prices would continue as spinner demand would pick up, floor brokers said.

He said the fact that the official rate committee had fixed the new crop average spot rate on the higher side at Rs2,950 reflected that the perception of futures supplies of lint was shared by all those linked to cotton trade.

However, in physical trading, most of the deals were done Rs200 to Rs250 per maund well above them depending on quality of lint on ready basis.

Floor brokers said supply and demand factors were now in full play and developing scenario suggested that spinners may remain on the receiving end until world prices start easing.

After having fallen steadily during the last couple of sessions from the seasonal highs, the New York cotton futures are again recovering and inching toward their pre-reaction level as foreign demand picks up, they added.

“What seems to have added to the supply confusion was report of pest attack in some of the areas of the central Punjab cotton belt,” said a leading broker, adding “despite official clarification that there is no major change in the crop position some of the spinners indulged in panic-buying pushing prices higher”.

The New York cotton futures rose by 0.51 and 0.35 cents per lb at 63.00 and 64.90 cents per lb higher for both the ruling October and the forward December contracts, fuelling local price flare-up.

Mills ready offtake was on the higher side totalling about 5,000 bales, the following being some of the notable deals:

SINDH TYPE: 400, 100 and 200 bales, Shahdadpur, Hyderabad and Mirpur Bethero done at Rs3,150, 500 bales, Mirpurkhas at Rs3,150 to Rs3,175, 200 bales, Tando Adam at Rs3,185 and 400 bales, Bashipur at Rs3,150 to Rs3,175.