KARACHI, April 30: Cotton market on Friday lacked normal trading interest as spinners and mills stayed on the sidelines and did not make fresh commitments because of delivery problems ahead of three closures.

There was relative quiet ahead of the long weekend as both ginners and spinners maintained a status quo rather than opting for wild guess about the future price outlook, market sources said.

Spinners were also watching the world price trend in the backdrop of Wednesday's massive fall in the New York cotton futures and its negative fallout on the other major markets. "As spinners may have to import another 0.2m to 0.3m bales from the world markets, they are more interested to buy lint below the 60 cents per lb mark", floor brokers said.

According to unconfirmed reports some of the leading textile groups have contracted to buy a substantial number of bales below 60 cents per lb for July shipment, which in turn could have a negative impact on the local prices. However, local ginners are not inclined to lower their asking prices as New York cotton future are known for wild either-way fluctuations on strong speculative buying and selling.

"I don't think NYCE futures could stay below the 60 cent mark", says a ginner "we can await the turnaround during the next couple of sessions". Market sources said in similar conditions as the prevailing one the physical activity on world market drops to a low ebb as both the buyers and sellers prefer to keep to the sidelines.

New York cotton futures on Thursday closed recovered by 0.32 cents per lb for the ruling May contract at 60.32 cents, while the distant July settlement suffered a fresh fall of 0.25 cents at 59.38 cents, signalling long-term outlook is still bearish.

Floor brokers said how the ginners and spinners will react to the negative fallout of the world cotton turmoil will be known after the market reopens on next Tuesday. The final crop figure due next week will also have a bearing on the future price outlook as both ginners and spinners will have a fair idea of the supply and demand factors.

Meanwhile, local spot rates were firmly held at the last levels and ginners were not inclined to go for bigger sales. Stray lots changed hands late on Thursday evening. The following being some of them: 200 bales, Bucheri at Rs2,850, 400 bales, Dadu at Rs2,750 and 400 bales, Haroonabad at Rs2,850.