KARACHI, Sept 12: Cotton market on Wednesday maintained bullish trend as ginners again played safe and did not indulge in hasty selling despite a slight pick up in phutti arrivals.

Most of the deals in the ready section were done Rs25 to Rs50 higher over the overnight levels reflecting that ginners and growers had regained control on the daily price line, said a leading broker.

But a cotton analyst said that the USDA latest world crop estimate put the Pakistan’s total crop at 14m bales plus as compared to previous season’s 12.6m bales, showing an increase of 1.6m bales. He ruled out speculative increase in prices on account of a short crop.

Most of the deals in Sindh variety were done between Rs2,825 to Rs2,850 per maund, while the Punjab lint was sold between Rs2,825 to Rs2,900 depending on the quality of lint, he added.

However, spinners and mills remained active buyers at the current levels followed by reports of slight pick up in exports.

But leading spinners and mills say higher unsold inventories to which huge amount of cash is tied have curtailed their daily off-take at the current levels and they are not in a position to make large forward deals.

That is perhaps why there were not many big deals and most of the business was of retail nature barring some in the central Sindh lint, they added.

Market sources said the supply and demand position will be clear during the next couple of sessions after Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) releases phutti arrivals data for the fortnight ending Sept 15, 2007.Official spot rates were held unchanged at the overnight level of Rs2,775 but most of the deals in the ready section were done well above them.

New York cotton futures on the other hand posted fresh gains of 0.60 and 0.64 cents per lb at 59.15 and 61.64 cents for both the ruling October and the forward December settlements respectively.

The following deals were done in the ready section on Wednesday.

SINDH TYPE: 2,600 and 2,000 bales, Shahdadpur and Tando Adam at Rs2,825 to Rs2,850, 2,000 bales, Mirpurkhas at Rs2,810 to Rs2,825, 200 bales each, Sanghar and Hyderabad at Rs2,850 and Rs2,825.