KARACHI, March 31: Cotton market on Wednesday stayed firm as ginners were not inclined to lower their asking prices despite falling mill demand and the absence of leading spinners.

Stray lots did change hands but there was no indication of resumption of normal trading as leading mills and spinners continued to play hide-and-seek game with the ginners.

After having made large commitments for the foreign lint, leading textile groups are keeping off the market in apparent effort to outwit those ginners who still hold long unsold positions, brokers said.

But ginners appear to be in no mood as they fully know the supply and demand position and hope their holding capacity could well be the ultimate deciding factor about the future price outlook, they said.

Moreover, most of them had purchased phutti at much higher rates amid reports of a short crop and any lowering of prices from the current average rate of Rs3,000 for fine lots could well mean huge losses, they added. Thus the current standoff leading to a battle of nerves will continue until the arrival of new crop from the lower Sindh cotton belt sometime in late July.

Meanwhile, reports coming from the textile sources indicate that leading among them have already covered their short positions through import and are buying the local stuff at will and at their own price, market sources said.

The latest arrival figures of phutti into the ginneries for the fortnight ended March 31, due during the next couple of sessions are expected to set the future market trend, they said adding "there appears to be no possibility of further price hike".

Reports from the New York cotton market were bearish where prices suffered modest decline on selling at the inflated levels. Both the ruling May and the forward July settlements were marked down by 0.45 and 0.28 cents at 65.10 and 66.90 cents per lb respectively.

But official spot rates did not show any change and were firmly held at the last levels in the absence of slow ready business. Ready offtake was light totalling about 2,000 bales, the following being some of the notable deals: 400 bales, Sadiqabad at Rs2,700, low-mic and 800 bales, Burewala at Rs3,100 per maund without 15 per cent sales tax.