KARACHI, Oct 1: Physical activity on Tuesday on the cotton market shrank significantly as ginners were not inclined to sell at the falling prices and held on to their positions.

“The highly volatile market is keeping us on our toes all the time, seldom allowing us to fix our export priorities,” most spinners complain.

“No spinner or mill owner could make forward sales of cotton yarn and cloth to foreign buyers until he is sure that supplies of lint will be in line with his export parity rates,” some others say.

An either-way price fluctuation of Rs50 per maund or above daily creates a big difference between the local and the export prices, which in turn not only erodes the competitive edge but also profit margins, they added.

In some cases it becomes difficult to meet export commitments as spinners could not plan on long-term basis because of uncertain local price outlook, they maintained.

But ginners on the other hand are not ready to share the spinner concern on the ground that it is mostly buyers and not the sellers, which generally set the price trend as they have a greater leverage when the crop is good.

The other reason behind an erratic market is conflicting reports about the damage to the crop by pest attack in some areas of the Punjab cotton belt and low micronaire of the stuff in trade.

It was due to this background that trading resumed at around Rs1,975 and after early increase to Rs1,985 per maund, which proved to be the day’s best bid. Prices then started to slid down and some of the deals were finalized as lower as Rs1,925 in Sindh type.

Punjab varieties were also traded around these levels depending on quality, although spinners mostly confined their buying offers to the former.

Unlike the previous sessions, the ready business considerably slowed down as ginners held on to their positions rather than selling at the falling prices, dealers said.

Official spot rates were again lowered by Rs20 per maund to match those of at which deals are being finalized. New York cotton futures on the other hand posted modest rise of 0.10 and 0.8 cents per lb at 42.40 and 44.42 cents for both the maturing October and the ruling December settlements, respectively.

Ready offtake was modest totalling about 4,000 bales as under:

SINDH VARIETY: 400 bales of Tando Adam at Rs1,975 and 400 bales at Rs1,950; 200 bales, Nayabad at Rs1,985; 600 bales, Shahdadpur at Rs1,975; 200 bales, Sinjoro at Rs1,980; 400 bales, Mirpurkhas at Rs1,925; and 200 bales from Bandhi also at Rs1,925.