KARACHI, Aug 11: Active trading was again witnessed on the cotton market on Wednesday as spinners and mills were not inclined to take even a technical breather and cornered fresh float from the ginners.

About 8,000 bales of new crop, mainly from the Sindh cotton belt changed hands where more ginneries have resumed operations after reports of brisk picking of phutti and steady arrivals from the growers.

Most of the deals were again finalized at the uniform rate of Rs2,350 for the Sindh variety, while Punjab lint was a bit higher because of quality factors. "Picking operations of phutti in the lower and central Sindh cotton belt are now normal as most of the fields have dried up after the last week's rain", brokers said.

Spinners and mills were out to grab the entire floating stock at the current rate as it was in line with their export parity level, they said. The general perception in the textile sector was that the price at which the new crop lint was available was a middle rate both on the lower and higher sides and competitive according to world standards at least for the current season.

Both the growers and the ginners were also not inclined to hold long positions and hence steady sailing on the new crop front at least for the near-term. "Instances of speculative buying are lacking as spinners seem to be operating under an unwritten agreement among them not to cross the buying limit", market sources said.

That was perhaps why an average weighted rate around Rs2,350 per maund was strictly adhered to by both the leading spinner groups and their weaker partners. Official spot rates were again quoted unchanged and most of the deals in the ready section were also done at them.

New York cotton futures on the other hand showed divergent trend and while the ruling October settlement managed to post a fractional rise of 0.15 cents per lb at 45.05 cents, the forward December contract fell by 0.4 cents at 45.71 per lb.

Ready offtake including those lots which changed hands late on Tuesday evening totalled about 8,000 bales, the following being some of the notable deals:

SINDH VARIETY: 2,000 bales, Mirpurkhas at Rs2,350, 200 bales at Rs2,360, 400 bales, Shahdadpur at Rs2,350, 200 bales, Tando Ada, 200 bales, Khipro and 200 bales, Sanghar also at Rs2,350.