KARACHI, April 5: Quieter conditions prevailed on cotton market on Friday as spinners kept to sidelines most of the session and did not make fresh commitments.

“The latest arrival figures have allayed the fears of a possible pressure on nearby supplies and spinners took a breather to have an overview of the objective cotton situation,” floor brokers said.

Some leading spinners were also of the view that prices could fall from the prevailing levels as mill buying will remain relatively slow during the next couple of weeks.

Although spinners still need another 1.5m bales to meet their annual demand, they are in no hurry as the supply position is expected to remain fairly comfortable thanks to above market production estimates.

Ginners are, however, not worried over the temporary pause and hope spinners have to be back as they still have to go a long way to cover their annual needs.

Floor brokers said the TCP was very much in the market and buying fine lots in export packing conforming to their quality standard, but its daily offtake is too small to influence the prices.

The private sector exporters are, however, now active and are covering their forward positions to meet their physical shipment deadlines. Their presence in the market is keeping ginners in a positive mood.

“After having crossed the export sales figure of 0.1m bales, the private sector exporters seem to be making all out efforts to secure more shipment orders from the Far Eastern buyers,” market sources said, adding “their total tally may match the previous figure, they are certainly eying half a million figure.”

Physical shipments are also being made according to deadlines as was reflected by a figure of 82,304 bales against total sales of 0.106m bales, they added.

Meanwhile, the private sector exporters have registered foreign sales contracts for another 3,672 bales sold to Bangladesh, Taiwan and Thailand with the Export Promotion Bureau on April 3 and 4, indicating the pace of foreign sales.

There was no change in the official spot rates, but New York cotton futures fell further modestly at 37.72 and 39.29 cents per lb for both the ruling May and the distant July settlements, respectively.

Ready offtake was light, totalling about 2,000 bales, the following being the notable deals: 600 bales of Moro at Rs1,650 and 400 bales of Punjmoro also at the same rate.