KARACHI, Nov 13: Cotton prices on Tuesday remained stable around the previous levels thanks to panic mill buying and spinner efforts to grab the floating stock fearing a price flare up based on a short crop.

There was, however no immediate impact of steep decline in New York cotton futures on the local market as strong mill demand did not allow external factors to influence the prices, floor brokers said.

However, a fresh fall around 60 cents per lb will be welcomed by the local spinners and mills as most of them are probing the world market to buy lint at competitive rates, they said.

At present spinners are focusing on the Indian lint which is a bit cheaper as saving on freight alone significantly cut the landing cost, they added.

According to textile sources maiden consignment of lint from India has already arrived through overland route in a Punjab textile mills and more consignments are on the way under an import deal already signed with an Indian exporter.

But a section of spinners fear that Indian exporters may raise prices in the coming weeks in line with the international prices, they said.

Official spot rates were again held unchanged at Rs3,175 per maund but in the ready section most of the deals were done at an average price of Rs3,200 per maund.

New York cotton futures on the other hand suffered sharp fall of 1.52 and 1.50 cents per lb on speculative selling at 63.12 and 67.63 cents for both the ruling December and forward March contracts respectively.

Ready off-take was on the higher side totalling about 40,000 bales, the following being some of the notable deals:

SINDH VARIETY: 800 bales, Khipro and 400 bales, Nawabshah at Rs3,125, 400 bales, Shahdadpur at Rs3,150 and 400 bales, Mirpurkhas at Rs3,100 and 600 bales, Khairpur at Rs3,200.