KARACHI, June 10: Cotton market on Tuesday lacked normal trading interest as spinners and mills remained conspicuous by their absence owing partly to higher asking prices by the ginners.

But some of brokers said stray lots did change hands as some of ginners, still holding stray lots of inferior stuff for a still better price, sold them around Rs3,400 per maund.

However, general mill perception is that most of the ginners had cleared their backlog of inferior lots a couple of weeks earlier at around Rs3,500 to Rs3,600 per maund followed by reports of larger imports by the spinners, they said.

They said some of the leading ginners are, however, still holding unsold stock of about 50,000 bales of mostly fine lots both from the upper Sindh and southern Punjab cotton belts, known as quality lint producers.

That is, perhaps, why there is relative quiet on both the sides, they said, adding: “While the ginners are not worried over their long positions held for a still better price as they could be cleared in a single session, the spinners, after having built-up strong stock positions through imports, enter the market at will and lift only those lots, which conform (price-wise) to their export parity levels.”

Some of the ginners holding contamination-free fine lots are now eyeing the price level beyond Rs4,000 per maund as some of the forward deals in the new crop had already been signed around this level and are sitting pretty comfortable at their unsold stocks, watching positive developments on the world textile front.

New York cotton future failed to sustain the previous run-up and reacted from them, off by 0.52 and 0.82 cents per lb at 66 and 70.70 cents per lb, respectively.

Official spot rates on the other hand did not show any change and were firmly held at the overnight level of Rs3,800 per maund.