KARACHI, Dec 8: Physical business on the cotton market on Wednesday failed to pick up as ginners and spinners remained locked in a price war, although it appears to be no-win situation.

Floor brokers said in the presence of the TCP on the market as second buyer, ginners were pretty sure that the spinners would remain at the receiving-end as the price setting mechanism was in their hands at least for the near-term.

"Despite some reservations in dealing with the TCP procedural technicalities, there is no reason to sell to the spinners at lower rate when the TCP is offering much better price for the same stuff", says a leading ginner.

"What ginners need is a little patience and holding capacity to sell their stocks at their asking prices and the last couple of sessions' falling ready off-take reflects that they have mastered the idea, brokers said.

No doubt some of the leading spinners had carryover stocks from the last year's larger import and they are extensively using staple fibre for blending purposes, thy still may need well over 12m bales, some analysts said adding that at best the local production figure could touch the highest mark of 11m bales and supply gap has to be bridged through imports or from the TCP.

"With most growers out of the picture after having sold bulk of their crop below the support price of Rs925 per 40-kg, ginners are now alone in the arena and there is a straight battle of wits between ginners and spinners", they said.

Meanwhile, reports coming from the upper Sindh and southern Punjab cotton belts indicate arrivals of phutti are progressively drying up as growers do not inclined to hold on to their stray stocks amid fears of quality damage.

According to latest procurement figures released by the TCP, up to Dec 8, it has purchased 1.716m bales, 1.203m bales from the Punjab ginners and 0.505m bales from their Sindh counterparts.

Official spot rates were firmly held at the last levels, although most of the deals in the ready section were done well above them. New York cotton futures were quoted further higher by 0.17 and 0.66 cents at 45.97 and 43.19 cents per lb for both the maturing December and the ruling March contracts respectively.

Sindh variety was quoted around Rs1,650 to Rs1,850 per maund but there was no seller at this price. The following are some of the deals, which gone through in Punjab variety: 2,500 bales, Bahawalpur, 2,000 bales, Sadiqabad 1,000 bales, Rahimyar Khan, 1,800 bales, Rajanpur at Rs1,900 and 1,000 bales, Gojra at Rs1,875 to Rs1,900.