KARACHI, July 9: The cotton market on Friday lacked normal trading interest partly because of a short trading session and partly to falling mill demand.

Physical business, therefore, remained at a low ebb and spinners were not inclined to make fresh commitments even at the attractively lower levels.

But some brokers reported that stray lots were changing hands as some of the spinners who are producing lower counts of cotton yarn were picking up low-mic lots at around Rs2,400 or slightly above this level depending on the staple length of the lots in trade.

Arrivals of phutti into the lower Sindh cotton belt are steadily increasing and some of the growers are selling it on cash basis at around Rs1,100 per 40 kg, while others are keeping it on an unfixed basis, hoping further increase in prices, they said.

But the ginners may not resume ginning operations before Aug 15, the deadline set by their apex body, the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association, in its meeting held late last month, they said.

However, according to world production and supply figures, there would be a production surplus of about 3m bales during the current season, which in turn could keep prices depressed.

Exporters were, however, conspicuous by their absence as the current massive fall of about 20 cents per lb in the world prices has put them at the receiving end. Floor brokers said some of the private sector exporters had already sold their stocks to the mills, in some cases at a loss, after the world prices fell sharply during the last couple of weeks, dealers said.

But some others managed to revise their shipment deadlines to the next year to avoid a possible default and trying to sell the stocks of the current crop to the needy mills, they said.

According to official figures, up to May 31 they have physically shipped 0.198m bales against their forward sales and there were no shipments in June or early July. There was no change in the local spot rates in the absence of ready business, which were quoted unchanged at Rs2,775 per maund.

New York cotton futures on the other hand fell further by 1.88 and 0.88 cents per lb for both the maturing July and the ruling October contracts at 44.87 and 48.00 cents per lb, respectively. Ready business remained at low ebb in the absence of buying interest from both the mills and spinners.