KARACHI, June 29: The cotton market on Tuesday remained under pressure as spinners again kept to the sidelines awaiting further fall in prices.

For the second session in a row, official spot rates were further lowered by Rs25 per maund as those ginners holding stray lots of unsold stocks tried to get out of the market but there were no matching buying offers.

The market is a victim of falling mill demand rather than any other external negative factor and until the spinners resume their normal buying operations the ginners will remain at the receiving end, market sources said.

"The fresh steep decline in the New York cotton futures has a negative impact on the local prices," brokers said, adding "the spinners hoping identical decline in local rates keep away allowing the ginners to lower their asking prices."

Never before, the ginners holding an unsold stock of about 0.4m bales in a terribly short crop of 9.8m bales had been in such a bad position as are now. "Mills need more supplies before the new crop arrives on the market but higher imports have put them in a commanding position and they buy at will," says a broker.

Most of the leading ginners holding largest chunk of unsold stock have already met the bank demand for the year ending June 30, and may hold on to their positions for another couple of weeks, but chances of price increase now appear a remote possibility, he adds.

The falling New York cotton futures owing to higher world production has changed the entire supply and demand outlook and the consumers may remain in a commanding position as far as prices are concerned.

New York cotton futures on Monday closed with fresh fall of 1.35 and 1.75 cents per lb for both the maturing July and the new crop October settlements at 48.65 and 52.20 cents per lb, respectively.

Meanwhile, reports of fresh rain in the upper Sindh cotton belt was well-received by the growers there as it helps the growth of plant at this time of the season, dealers said.

Official spot rates were lowered by another Rs25 at Rs3,025 per maund but in physical trading some of the deals were done below them. Ready offtake was light as till late in the evening 200 bales from an upper Sindh ginnery changed hands at Rs2,915.