KARACHI, March 26: Physical business on the cotton market on Friday remained insipid as spinners and mills again kept to the sidelines apparently awaiting confirmation of fresh export orders for the quarter ending June 30.

But some leading brokers said a lot of business is being transacted off-the-floor between Punjab ginners and spinners, details of which are not immediately available.

The unsold stocks lying with the ginners in the final crop report due in the first week of the next month will show the actual position of both the total crop and the stocks held by the ginners, they said, adding "that will set the future price trend".

But some others said the daily mill ready offtake was affected by the highly erratic price movements of the New York cotton futures, which did not allow them to plan for long-term basis. Any further fall in prices could have negative impact on our exports of textiles and cotton yarn, spinners said.

However, the local prices remained stable between Rs2,700 to Rs3,000 per maund depending on quality and were not immediately affected by the uneven fluctuations on the world markets, they said.

"Leading spinners and mills who had built up long positions earlier in the season at much lower rates and through imports around 62 cents per lb are not worried over the supply and demand factors", analysts said "but their weaker links face some problems partly on account of their liquidity position and partly to the absence of willing sellers".

Some of leading spinners have increased the use of synthetic fibre in their blended yarn meant for export markets, which in turn has reduced their intake of lint, dealers said.

Meanwhile, reports originating from the end-product users, notably the ancillary industry indicate a modest increase in yarn prices in sympathy with synthetic fibre, which add to their export parity levels.

Reports from the New York Cotton Exchange were bearish as both the future contracts have suffered fresh decline ranging from 1.06 and 0.94 cents per lb for both the ruling May and the distant July settlements.

Official spot rates on the other hand remained pegged at the last close in the absence of comparative figures from the ready market. Ready offtake was light as barring a fresh deal of 1,000 bales from a Rahimyar Khan ginnery at Rs3,000, no other deal was reported by the brokers.