KARACHI, July 22: The cotton market on Thursday resisted fresh decline but the direction of the market is unclear amid falling mill demand.

But one thing now appears certain that from now onward the growers may have a say in fixing the lint prices if sanity did not return to the spinning sector, fears a broker.

He said phutti prices did increase early in the season because of lower arrivals but panic buying from some of the ginners at much higher rates added to the lint rates.

For instance, how the central Punjab ginners will justify to resume operations after having purchased phutti from the lower Sindh growers much before the normal picking, he asks.

Cotton analysts said that a decision early this month of high-ups of the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) to resume new season ginning operations from August and September 1 in both the Sindh and the Punjab cotton belts was aimed at to check any speculative rise in prices of phutti and lint and allow the ginners to dispose of unsold stocks before the normal arrivals of the new crop.

"No one could disagree with the fact that a grower must get a fair price on his investment but not at the stake of the entire textile sector, which accounts for 65 per cent of total exports," they said.

Reports coming in from the lower Sindh and the central Punjab cotton belts where picking operations are resumed a bit earlier claim some of the ginners are making hectic efforts to grab phutti well above the official rate of Rs925 and that could well lead to another crisis, brokers said.

Meanwhile, the PCGA bosses are meeting in Multan on July 25 to take stock of the prevailing cotton situation and the problem of unsold stocks lying with the ginners and falling mill demand, market sources said.

Official spot rates were firmly held at the last level of Rs2,500 per maund after persistent decline for the last over a week.

New York cotton futures on the other hand reacted from the previous highs on selling, off 0.68 and 0.93 cents per lb for both the ruling October and the forward December contracts at 48 and 48.18 cents, respectively.

Ready business was modest totalling about 2,000 bales, the following being some of the notable deals: 200 bales, Gothki at Rs2,350; 200 bales, Sadiqabad at Rs2,000; and 400 bales, Rahimyar Khan at Rs2,575.