KARACHI, Jan 1: Cotton market on Thursday maintained its upward drive as spinners and mills were not inclined to take even a technical breather amid reports of an imminent price flare-up.

But later in the evening, about 5,000 bales from Khanpur and Liaquatpur changed hands at Rs3,400 per maund .

“The new opening on the higher side reflects that both the spinners and the mills could face parity problems on the export front as prices seem to be heading to their early season peak level of Rs4,000 per maund,” said a leading cotton analyst.

He said the current buying euphoria is expected to gather fresh momentum during the next couple of weeks after the size of the crop is available, which would trigger buystops from the spinners.

And added to strong rebound staged by the New York cotton futures is known to be as price-setter the world over which is close to hit its new benchmark around 50 cents per lb, he added.

Both the ruling March and the forward May contracts had over the last couple of weeks steadily risen to 49.02 and 49.31 cents per lb, respectively.

An idea of panic mill buying may well be had from the fact that some of the fine lots were traded as higher as Rs3,300 per maund well above the TCP official support rate of Rs3,205 per 40kgs.

Floor brokers said the TCP could opt for inferior grade lint but as far as fine lots are concerned, they are gradually edging beyond their parity levels.

As a result, official spot rates were upped by another Rs75 per maund at Rs3,200.

Mills ready offtake was maintained on the higher side, totaling about 25,000 bales, the following being some of the notable deals:

SINDH TYPE: 1,000 bales, Mirpurkhas at Rs3,025, 600 and 2,000 bales, Dadu and Shahdadpur at Rs3,050, 500 and 400 bales each, Saeedabad, Daultpur, Nawabshah and Hyderabad at Rs3,100 and 3,000 bales, upper Sindh at Rs3,200 to Rs3,250.

PUNJAB VARIETY: 1,000 bales, Sher Sultan, 400 and 800 bales, Rahimyar Khan and Muhammdpur at Rs3,300, 3,500 bales, Sadiqabad, 2,000 bales, each Liaquatpur, Ahmedpur East, at Rs3,275, 800 bales, Jampur at Rs3,260, 400 bales, Ahmedpur, 800 bales, Alipur and 1,600 bales, Rajanpur at Rs3,200, 600 bales, Yazman at Rs3,225 and 1,400 bales, Ahmedpur East at Rs3,150.