KARACHI, Sept 26: Trading activity on the cotton market remained slow as both buyers and sellers observed Jumatul Wida with religious fervour being the last Friday of the holy month of Ramazan.

The Punjab cotton markets remain closed for weekly holiday.

The news coming from the central Sindh cotton belt was, however, fairly encouraging as fresh business was done in some of the stations, the main buyers were said to be Punjab spinners and mills.

Most of the deals, to be delivered after Eidul Fitr, were done at a bit higher rates, dealers said.

However, leading cotton analysts said physical business was expected to remain sluggish in sessions prior to Eid as spinners and mills were not inclined to take risks owing to erratic price movements in the backdrop of volatile New York cotton futures.

Some of the leading spinners kept to the sidelines on the perception that the world lint price would fall further due to the current financial crisis on the European and the US markets and would make imports more competitive.

According to official sources local textile industry still needs to import about 2m bales of lint from various sources to bridge the local supply shortfall.

After having fallen steadily below the 60-cent per lb during the last couple of sessions, both the New York cotton contracts resisted fresh decline on trade buying but the future outlook still appears to be uncertain.

Official spot rates did not show any change and were firmly held at the overnight level of Rs3,950 per maund.

About 8,000 bales mainly from the Sindh ginneries changed hands between Rs3,925 to Rs3,975 per maund. The Sindh variety was again sold at a premium of Rs25 over its Punjab counterpart.