KARACHI, July 28: Cotton prices on Wednesday suffered fresh modest decline as spinners made selective buying amid light trading.

Reports of ban on resumption of ginning operations by the highups of Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA), appears to have no relevance to the ground realities as the twice imposed ban has been violated by its members both in Sindh and the central Punjab cotton belts.

Even the Central Punjab ginners have resumed operations in early July after having purchased phutti from the lower Sindh cotton belt. "The cotton trade is currently being guided by supply and demand factors and talk of a ban until the current stocks are exhausted appears to be a far cry," says a leading local ginner.

The unsold stock of 0.3m bales is two days intake of the mills but as there is no willing buyer no one could force them, he said While prices of the current lint were further lowered by Rs25 per maund, new crop from the lower Sindh ginneries was traded at the previous average rate of Rs2,400 per maund.

The ginners are also making guarded commitments of the new crop amid hopes of an increase in prices in the coming weeks based on supply and demand factors, brokers said. "All eyes are now focused on the New York cotton futures, which are still ruling volatile despite having received massive battering during the last couple of weeks," they said.

That is perhaps why leading spinners and mills who had built up long positions in foreign lint were conspicuous by their absence, while small among them are in the market and are lifting modest quantities of lint.

Much of the activity was confined to the new crop because of quality reasons and competitive prices in line with the international markets. New York cotton futures posted fresh modest decline of 0.37 and 0.52 cents per lb for both the ruling October and the distant December settlements at 43.94 and 44.52, heading to breach through the barrier of 40 cents per lb.

Official spot rates were also lowered by Rs25 in line with the prevailing ready rates. Ready business was light totalling about 1,500 bales as under:

NEW CROP: 100 bales, Mirpurkhas at Rs2,425, 200 bales, at 2,400 and 200 bales, Khipro also at 2,400.