KARACHI, April 28: Cotton market maintained a firm trend on Monday as leading spinners resumed their normal covering operations amid fears that prices are heading towards new peak levels.

After several lean sessions, a big lot of business was witnessed as a group of spinners and mills tried to grab the floating stock of fine lots, both from the upper Sindh and the southern Punjab ginneries, followed by a price flare-up, floor brokers said.

While the official rate committee revised upward the official spot rates by Rs25 at Rs3,375, in the ready section, fine lots were traded around Rs3,600 per maund.

Floor brokers said as pressure on ready supplies is build up, the market is expected to further heat up in the coming sessions, notably for fine lots, but inferior lots will show a sympathetic rise.

“As fears are expressed about the size of the new crop owing to reports of problems of irrigation water, leading spinners and mills who are financially sound are trying to grab the floating stock of lint around the current levels,” they said. They said owing to various factors, including price flare-up, fuelled by a weak dollar and higher oil prices, spinners fear there could be a fresh increase in local prices in the coming weeks.

On the export front, private sector exporters registered more cotton export contracts with the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan up to April 23, 2008, totalling 0.229 million bales, both old and the current crop against which physical shipments of 0.197 million bales had been made by the same date, according to official sources.

The following are some of the deals in the ready section on Monday evening: 3,500 bales, Rohri at Rs3,400; 1,900 bales, Gothki at Rs3,600; 200 bales, Harappa also at Rs3,600 and 1,000 bales, Sadiqabad at Rs3,300.