KARACHI, March 16: The cotton market on Tuesday remained under pressure as ginners tried to get out of the long unsold positions at the current levels fearing further decline in prices.

Official spot rates were further lowered by Rs50 at Rs2,950 per maund, although in physical trading most of the deals are being finalized at much lower rates depending on the quality of lint.

Fine and contamination-free lots from the southern Punjab ginners were, continue to fetch higher prices as spinners need them to produce higher counts of cotton yarn for export markets, dealers said.

Indications are that prevailing nervousness among the ginners, notably in their weaker links could caused panic selling and further decline in prices, market sources said.

New York cotton futures on the other hand halted their recent downward drift on trade buying and rose by 0.81 and 0.72 cents per lb at 65.63 and 66.75 for both the ruling May and the distant July settlements, respectively. But the decline in local prices reflects the ginners are a bit worried over the large unsold stocks and are not inclined to hold on to them in an uncertain market.

Floor brokers said highly erratic price movements on the New York Cotton Exchange have un-nerved the ginners leading among them still hold substantial stocks and most of them have decided to get out of an uncertain market.

Although leading among them are the victim of their own selling strategy followed by reports of a short crop, they have escape routes to minimize losses a couple of week earlier, they said.

"Spinners seem to have played their cards well and managed to outwit ginners," they said adding, "but they too still are at the receiving end." Meanwhile, the mills and spinners maintained the monthly consumption figures at the higher rate of well over 0.950m bales during August, September and October 2003, reflecting total mill intake during the last year to well over 12m bales, according to official figures.

For the second session in a row, the spinners and mills remained active buyers and lifted all the fine lots offered for sales by the ginners both at the decline and rise, the following being some of the notable deals: 4,000 bales, Rajanpur at Rs3,000; 1,000 bales, Khanpur at Rs3,100; 200 bales, Muridwala at Rs3,050; 400 bales, Kot Digi at Rs2,900; and 400 bales, Tharoshah at Rs2,850.