KARACHI, Oct 13: Cotton market on Wednesday remained under pressure as prices suffered fresh decline on panic-selling by ginners followed by reports of higher world and local production.

For the second time during the last couple of weeks, Sindh variety was traded as low as Rs1,750 per maund amid panic created by fears of further decline in prices, brokers said.

The TCP staff remained active buyers at the official rates but it was pretty difficult for them to check panic-selling by the ginners, some of whom still prefer to sell spinners and mills on cash basis, dealers said.

"What seems to have accelerated the pace of selling was reports of steep decline in the New York cotton futures, which were marked down by 1.73 and 1.90 cents per lb for both the ruling December and the forward March settlements, sending bearish signals to the global markets", they said.

According to latest world lint consumption and production figures there will be a surplus of 2.5m bales despite higher intake of the spinning sector. The steep decline in New York cotton futures may not have an immediate direct link with local prices but speculative forces make it look so and the shaky ginners try to follow the international trend fearing further fall in prices.

The interesting feature is that spinners may not opt for foreign lint as it entails a lot of paper work but lift the entire floating stock offered by the ginners at the falling prices.

That is perhaps why a fresh decline in prices late on Tuesday night proved to be a bonanza for the spinners as they purchased about 25,000 bales at the lower levels, brokers said. However, spinners were not inclined to sit on the sidelines and lifted all the lots offered for sales amid actively traded session where big-lot business was the hallmark of the trading, dealers said.

Official spot rates were marked down by Rs25 in line with the ready prices, generating a lot of fresh buying from the spinners. Ready off-take soared to 25,000 bales, the following being some of the notable deals.

SINDH VARIETY: 1,000 bales, Mirpurkhas at Rs1,825-1,850, 1,000 bales, Tando Adam and 1,000 bales, Sanghar at Rs1,850-1,900, 1,000 bales, Shahdadpur at Rs1,900-1,925, 1,000 bales, and 2,000 bales, Nawabshah at Rs1,925 to Rs1,975.