KARACHI, March 14: Cotton market on Thursday consolidated the previous gains following steady inflow of buying offers both from the spinners and the exporters but there was no evidence of hasty selling from the ginners.

Leading spinner groups were, however, not inclined to take even a technical breather and continue to indulge in big-lot business, which also included a single-largest bargain of 8,000 bales.

The notable feature was that a lot of K-68 changed hands at Rs.1,800, the highest rates for the last about six months, while on credit NIAB was sold at Rs.1,760 per maund.

As the arrivals of phutti from those growers who were still holding modest unsold stocks are drying up, ginners now have a fair idea of the total crop, and are in the process of adjusting themselves to the ground realities, brokers said.

The official arrival figures for the fortnight ending March 15, which will be released by the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association possibly by next Monday, is expected to se the future trend for the market, they added.

However, one thing appears certain that there may not be major change in the arrival figures than those already available with the private agencies including the Aptma. There is a consensus among the producers and the consumers that total crop could be slightly above 10m bales mark.

But there is no panic in the ginning circles as it was some week earlier after spinners have slowed down their buying operations

Having a second option as a second buyer, ginners opt for the TCP if they failed to get competitive rates from the spinners and exporters and in most cases held on to their positions, dealers said.

“There is no evidence of speculative lifting by any of the partners in the cotton trade as is reflected by progressive modest increase in prices rather than bull-squeeze,” they added.

The general perception is that the lean period is now over and future cotton outlook appears optimistic partly because of an expected pick up in mill demand and partly to higher world prices, which have made fresh imports by spinners more expensive.

Ready business was fairly large totalling about 20,000 bales as under:

SINDH VARIETY: 8,000 bales, Nawabshah at Rs.1,725, 600 bales at 1,760 on credit, 1,000 bales, Rohri at 1,800, and 600 bales, Kot Lalu at 1,760 on credit.