KARACHI, Feb 17: Trading activity on the cotton market on Thursday was relatively slow as both ginners and spinners awaited the release of arrival figures of phutti for the fortnight ended Feb 15.

Stray lots, however, did change hands as local spinners and mills tried to supplement their stock positions before the arrival figures released. The prices may rise further in case the figures fall below market projections.

Some of the leading brokerage houses speculate that arrival figures may not exceed the figure of 0.150m bales on the higher side, taking the total arrivals so far to 14.250m bales.

"The talk of 14.5m bales total now appears to be a bit ambitious and the current rise in prices is reflective of this fact as spinners may have a fair idea of the total crop as they carryout private surveys through their own agencies to keep themselves well-informed about the supply position", market sources said.

Most of the leading spinners sign export deals with the foreign buyers after having a fair idea of the total crop as any interruption in between or price flare-up creates problems for them on the export front, they said.

Unconfirmed reports claim some fresh deals were finalized in upper Sindh fine lots around Rs2,300 but leading brokers say it appears to be a speculative thinking to push prices further higher.

Most of the deals, officially reported were finalized between Rs2,200 and Rs2,250 per maund depending on quality but no leading broker reported any deal at Rs2,300. Official spot rates were revised by Rs25 per maund at Rs2,175 in line with those at which deals were being done in physical trading.

New York cotton futures on other hand showed fractional decline of 0.8 cents for both the ruling March and the distant May settlements at 46.20 and 46.33 cents per lb respectively.

Ready business was light totalling about 4,000 bales as under: 1,000 bales, upper Sindh at Rs2,225-2,250 and 200 bales, Mirpurkhas at Rs2,025, 2,500 bales, Rahimyar Khan at Rs2,200, 400 bales, each Sadiqabad and Rajanpur at Rs2,200.