KARACHI, Oct 24: Cotton market on Wednesday eased after witnessing firm start as higher crop projections by the official estimate committee triggered selling from some weak ginners.

The market opened on a higher note, what broker Naseem Usman called, the extension of the previous firmness but prices eased from the early highs toward the close on late selling.

“Report that spinners have purchased about 0.250 million bales of lint cotton from a number of countries between 32 and 37 cents per lb appears to be the chief destabilizing factor”, he says, adding “ginners who have been holding the price line on the higher got panicky and sold in a haste”.

In the morning some of the deals were finalized around Rs.1,750.00 against the Tuesday’s rate of Rs.1,800.00, but prices fell further in the evening as mill demand shrank to the modest proportions and panic selling by some of the ginners.

Market sources said higher crop estimate of 10.8 million bales given by the official sources appears to have also halted the market’s upward drive as spinners were not that active on the perception of comfortable ready supplies in the weeks to come.

“Over the last couple of sessions, spinners and mills have purchased about 75,000 bales, pushing prices higher from Rs.1,650.00 to Rs.1,850.00 per maund but their technical breather after hectic buying worked against the underlying sentiment”, they add.

The general view is that the market may remain depressed during the coming sessions, also as the fall of the New York cotton futures below the 30 cent per lb level for the ruling December settlement has altogether changed the market outlook.

Thus it was not a single bearish factor but a combination of them, which seem to have halted the market’s upturn at least for the near-term.

The local official rates did not show any change from the overnight level but the New York cotton futures showed fresh fractional decline of 0.5 and 0.24 cents per lb for the ruling December and the forward March 2002 settlement at 29.76 and 31.41 cents per lb respectively.

While no business was reported in the Sindh variety in the ready section, a leading brokerage houses reported the following deals in the all from the Punjab ginneries: 600 bales of Nurpur at Rs.1,725.00, 400 bales at Rs.1,750.00, 400 bales, Bahawalpur at Rs.1,750.00, 400 bales, Ahmedpur East at Rs.1,750.00, 600 bales, Sadiqabad at Rs.1,750.00, 500 bales, Alipur at Rs.1,700.00 and 400 bales of Fazalpur at Rs.1,700.00.