KARACHI, April 21: Trading on the cotton market on Monday remained slow as ginners and spinners were locked in a price war but there was no blinking on the part of the former as was widely expected by the latter.

The notable feature of the local dealings was that prices remained stable around their current levels and are not taking cue of erratic price movements on the world cotton market perhaps because of a short crop.

Lower daily ready turnover figures reflect a sort of status quo between buyers and sellers, indicating that no one is in a hurry and lifted some of the lost, which are competitive, both on the price and quality fronts.

Holding an unsold stock of below half a million bales, ginners are holding to their positions amid hopes that prices could rise from the current levels. Spinners on the one hand are relying more on imports, which had already touched the high mark of well over three million bales, market sources said.

Floor brokers said ginners holding a manageable unsold stock of lint appear to be in no haste and sold only those lots, which fell in line with their parity levels.

“It was literally quality- based trading as spinners were inclined to go as far as Rs3,500 per maund for the fine lots and around 3,400 or below it for the inferior type of lots,” they said.

Meanwhile, reports reaching here indicate that sowing of the new crop is said to have been further delayed owing to reports of shortage of irrigation water, notably in the lower Sindh cotton belt.

Official spot rates were firmly held at the weekend level of Rs3,300 per maund, but some big lot deals were done above them.

The following are some of the notable deals in the ready section on Monday: 5,200 bales, Rahimyar Khan at Rs3,500 and 3,500 bales, at Rs3,375.