KARACHI, March 12: Cotton prices on the local market on Wednesday quoted higher by Rs50 to Rs100 per maund after a relative lull for the last couple of sessions.

Some of deals for fine lots were finalised as higher as Rs3,500 per maund as leading ginners raised their asking prices followed by strong rebound staged by the New York cotton futures after having declined by 16 cents per lb last week, floor brokers said.

“The limit-gain of four cents per lb in future prices of both the ruling May and the July contracts at 81.28 and 83.11 cents, respectively, indicates that the market has again slipped into the hands of speculative forces,” local cotton analysts said.

They said it may not be that easy for the spinners and mills to get cheaper inputs if the world price trend continues on the higher side in the coming weeks also.

“An increase in the New York cotton futures makes import expensive,” spinners said “with the standoff on the shipments of consignments already unresolved”, the future supplies may remain uncertain as well as expensive,” some others linked to the textile industry fear.

A short local crop seems to have dealt a major blow to the textile industry as a dozens of units have shutdown their business, while some others are in the line, they said.

“No one could deny the fact that textile industry is heading for major crisis and in the process could significantly jolt the export target as its contribution to the total national exports is about 65 per cent,” said a cotton analyst. There was, however, no change in the official spot rates, which stayed unchanged at Rs3,350 per maund for an average quality lint but in physical trading some of the deals were done well above them.

The following are some of the deals, which were gone through in the ready section on Wednesday: 3,000 bales, Ghotki, Daharki, Mirpur Mathelo at Rs3,500; 1,000 bales, Shahdadpur and 200 bales, Mirpurkhas at Rs3,400; 1,200 bales, Khanpur at Rs3,400 and 3,500 bales, Rahimyar Khan, lower quality at Rs3,250.