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KARACHI, Oct 30: Active trading was witnessed on the cotton market on Tuesday as the pent-up mill demand lifted all the lots offered by the ginners below the highest rate of day Rs1,760 per maund.
A big-lot business was noted in the Punjab variety as the battle of wits between the spinners and the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) to grab the floating stock of fine lots attained new dimensions.
“The perception that the TCP is in the market in a big way to ensure a fair price for the growers, seems to have sent shock waves among the spinners and mills who hastened to re-enter the arena in a big”, says a leading cotton broker.
The TCP tally has already touched the high mark of 0.200m bales including 10,100 bales, which it purchased at Rs1,855.00 per maund according to its specification on Oct 29.
Market sources claim the bone of contention was the lint from the Punjab ginneries as spinners need it to spin higher counts of cotton yarn for the export outlets.
“If the current tussle to grab the floating stocks continues for another couple of weeks, both the grower and the ginner could be the chief beneficiary”, they say.
Prices have risen sharply higher thanks to strong demand from the mills and the spinners but are weighed down by the international factors including lower New York cotton futures rates, which generally set trend for the world markets to follow, they added.
Exporters were, however, conspicuous by their absence as local prices are not quite in line with their export parity level. That is perhaps why they could only physically ship about 3,000 bales of the new crop since Sept 1, 2001, the new cotton season.
It was in this background that the official spot rates were further upped by Rs10 and so did New York cotton futures, which also finished with fractional gains of 0.8 and 0.2 cents at 28.94 and 30.57 cents per lb respectively.
Ready offtake was active as till late in the evening about 12,000 bales including those changed hands late on Monday evening. The following being some of the notable deals.
SINDH VARIETY: 600 bales, Shahdadpur at Rs1,575, and 200 bales, Sinjoro at Rs1,625.
PUNJAB TYPE: 2,500 bales, Lodharan at Rs1,760, 1,00 bales, each Sardargarh and Sadiqabad at Rs1,725 and Rs1,750, 1,200 bales, Burewala at Rs1,650, 600 bales, Sahiwal at Rs1,650 to Rs1,675, 600 bales, Toba Tek Singh at 1,650, 400 bales, Rasulpur at Rs1,685, 400 bales, D.G. Khan at Rs1,675, 400 bales, each Rajanpur and Bahawalpur at Rs1,725 and Rs1,740, 400 bales, Nurpur at Rs1,750 and 200 bales, Rahimyar Khan at Rs1,725.
