KARACHI, April 6: The cotton market on Tuesday lacked normal trading interest as spinners and mills kept to the sidelines, awaiting fresh developments on the world cotton market after reports of further fall in New York cotton futures.

There were no signs of revival of physical activity as witnessed a day earlier after spinners lifted about 15,000 bales as both the spinners and mills again withdrew to the sidelines, anticipating sympathetic decline in line with the world prices, dealers said.

"Spinners are playing a hide-and-seek game with the ginners for the last couple of sessions," they said. "They promptly withdraw to the sidelines after indulging in hectic buying a day earlier apparently in a bid to keep the ginners at their toes all the time."

But the ginners appear to be in no mood to lower their asking prices, notably for the fine and contamination-free lots, which they are selling at around Rs3,000 per maund.

However, those ginners who are holding stray lots of low-mic lint are not to inclined to hold them further and are selling them mostly at the spinners offered prices.

The unsold stocks of 1.2m bales lying with some leading ginners are no problems with them as their holding capacity is strong and they could hold them until the new crop arrives on the market, market sources said, adding "the further decline in fine lots appears to be now a remote possibility."

The future price outlook is expected to be guided by the local supply and demand factors and any further fall in New York cotton futures may not have any relevance to it, they added.

That is perhaps why there was no change in the official spot rates, which were firmly held unchanged at the last levels, while in the ready section some fine lots were sold at Rs3,000 per maund.

New York cotton futures on the other hand fell further on speculative trade selling, off 0.44 and 0.52 cents per lb for both the ruling May and the forward July settlements at 62.18 and 64.11 cents, respectively.

Ready offtake was light as till late in the evening 3,000 bales changed hands, the following being some of the notable deals: 1,000 bales, Alipur at Rs3,000; and 400 bales, Sadiqabad at Rs2,725, while no business was reported in Sindh varieties for the third session.