KARACHI, June 20: Cotton market on Thursday showed firm trend as despite a considerable decline in mill buying ginners were in no mood to lower their asking prices.

The notable feature was that a maiden forward deal in lower Sindh phutti was reported at Rs.810 per 40 kg, above the official support price of Rs.800.

Under the deal a grower from Nayabad is obliged to deliver phutti to the ginner in the first week of the next month, which could well mean that ginning operations in the lower Sindh cotton belt are expected to resume by the end of the next month.

But there was on negative impact on the price line of the current crop as a big deal from the upper Sindh ginnery was finalized at Rs.2,015 per maund claimed to be the year’s highest level.

Stray lots, which came in for trading were mostly sold at the rates demanded by the ginners, although some of the inferior lots changed hands according to quality premiums, dealers said.

However, section of ginners was worried over the rumours that some of the spinners who have imported lint far more than their annual consumption needs are offering to sell surplus lots to the needy mills.

“Bulk of over a million bales of lint imported by the spinners is claimed to be purchased at much lower levels than the prevailing ones and ensure a reasonable profit without going for processing operation,” brokers said.

“It is not bad to sell lint instead of converting it into yarn,” says a spinner. “It is the part of the game if their is meeting point between the seller and the buyer.”

Floor brokers said ginners may not be that worried as they have been a couple of weeks back when they were sitting on a huge unsold inventory of over a million bales.

Ginners now have a manageable unsold position of around 0.4m bales barley enough for two-week mill consumption if the spinners decide to buy it irrespective of the asking prices, they added.

Official spot rates remained basically unchanged from the last level, while New York cotton futures recovered from the last two sessions low and rose by 0.37 and 0.57 cents per lb at 39.85 and 42.47 cents per lb for both the ruling July and the distant October settlements respectively.

Ready offtake was light totalling about 3,000 bales as under; 800 bales, Daur at Rs.1,700 and 1,000 bales, Sarhad in upper Sindh at Rs.2,015.