KARACHI, Feb 9: Quieter conditions were again witnessed on the cotton market on Saturday as both the sellers and the buyers kept to the sidelines.

After having committed to import trade owing to market talk of short crop of about 10 million bales, spinners and mills had made forward deals for about 2m bales during the last couple of months at an average CIF (cost, insurance and freight) rate of 65 cents per lb, cotton analysts said.

“Some of them, who already have placed big orders for imported stuff, seem unaware of the rising figure of the local crop output, which could hit the high mark to 11m bales plus,” they said, adding “official sources put the figure around 12m bales”.

As Letters of Credit (LCs) have been opened by the textile sector for well over 2m bales, some of them may be facing problems of ready payments to the ginners, they said hence the prevailing sluggishness in the local market.

An idea of larger import of lint may be had from the fact that alone in January last about 0.855m bales found their way into the godowns of the spinners and mills.

In the developing scenario, it is unlikely that spinners will opt for local covering operations during the next couple of weeks and may lift stray lots at the lower levels, said a broker.

But some brokers said stray lots in the southern Punjab cotton belt did change hands, details of which were not immediately transmitted to the Karachi Cotton Association (KCA).

Some lots said to be of fine quality were changed hands between Rs3,250 to Rs3,300 per maund, although some of the ginners offered inferior lots at much lower rates, around Rs3,150.

Meanwhile, private sector exporters registered export contracts for 82,000 bales from the current crop during the last month, shipment against which are steadily being made.

In the absence of strong demand, there was no change in the official spot rates, which were firmly held at Rs3,150 per maund.

New York cotton futures on the other hand rose by 0.68 cents per lb for both the maturing March and the ruling May contracts at 69.09 and 70.82 cents, respectively.