KARACHI, Oct 8: Cotton market on Tuesday maintained firm trend as reports of a considerable slow down in arrivals of phutti into the ginneries caused pressure on ready supplies of lint.

Because of national elections on Thursday, picking operations of phutti in major cotton growing areas have temporarily suspended, which triggered panic buying from the spinners.

Moreover, fearing some law and order problems during the post-election sessions, spinners were not inclined to take even a calculated risks and indulged in hasty buying, pushing prices to seasonal high of Rs.2,040 in overnight dealings.

Dealers said the market is expected to maintain a firm outlook at least for the current week and how it reacts to the election results and the trade policies of the winning party will set its future trend.

However, one thing appears certain irrespective of the crop ideas, the current price levels could be sustained in the post-election trading sessions also followed by predictions of strong mill demand, they added.

“Reports from the textile export front are fairly encouraging as most of the leading spinners and mills have sufficient orders in their kitty, which could ensure strong renewed buying from them at least for the current quarter ending Dec 31,” they said.

But some others said conflicting reports about the size of the crop did worry end-product users. Their chief worry is about the extent of damage caused by the pest in some of the areas of the central Punjab and its negative impact on total crop size in number of bales.

“Some claims the damage in some of the areas is above the economic injury level but some other say it is small and may not disturb the overall projected figure of 10.5m bales.”

However, spinners are worried about the local supplies having in view their annual consumption needs, which has soared to about 1.2m bales and any interruption in supplies could have negative impact on exports as well as their competitive edge owing to higher local prices.

Official spot rates were further upped by Rs.10 per maund to Rs.1,980 per maund, while New York cotton futures resisted fresh decline and were quoted higher by 0.50 and 0.33 cents per lb at 41.10 and 42.77 cents per lb for both the maturing October and the ruling December settlements respectively.

Ready offtake was moderately higher as till late in the evening about 8,000 bales changed hands as under:

SINDH VARIETY: 1,000 bales, Sanghar at Rs.1,950.00, 400 bales, Nawabshah at 2,025.00, 400 bales, Sakrand at 2,025.00, 400 bales, Khairpur at 2,025.00, 200 bales, Sinjoro at 1,950.00 and 200 bales, Khipro at 1,950.00.