KARACHI, Oct 18: Cotton market on Friday maintained steady trend despite a considerable decline in mill demand as ginners were not inclined to lower their asking prices.

There was no trace of early week hectic mill buying as leading spinners kept to the sidelines most of the time in a bid not to further fuel the current price increases to keep export parity level for cotton yarn competitive.

Floor broker Naseem Usman said unlike the previous seasons, there is no evidence of any cartel of the big spinners who are capable of setting the market trend in view of their strong liquidity positions.

“Their absence from the market for the last couple of sessions, however, reflects they have chosen to keep a judicious equilibrium between the local and the export prices of the end-products”, he adds.

Competitive price calculations made by some leading cotton analysts, which should equally benefit growers, ginners and spinners on an average should not increase above Rs850 for phutti (against the minimum official price of Rs800 per 40 kg) and Rs1,950 for lint.

“Any rate above them could hurt one or more partners in the trade or all the three, having negative impact on their competitive edge”, they said.

Incidentally, lint prices are fluctuating around this level barring a couple of lots, which are traded beyond this rate, the highest being Rs2,025 depending on the quality of lint in trade. But market sources said in free market economy it is hard to check fall and rise in prices as they are guided by many factors including the supply and demand.

However, apart from supply and demand factors, the crop ideas also play a pivotal role in setting the price trend, market sources said adding “speculative buying by leading group of spinners sometimes did disturb the balance, which works against the interest of their smaller partners”.

It was perhaps in this background the official spot rates were revised upward by Rs10 to Rs2,000 per maund without 15 per cent sales tax.

New York cotton futures also showed modest gains of 0.46 and 0.32 cents at 44.04 and 46.30 cents per lb for both the ruling December and the distant March settlements respectively.

Ready offtake was modest as till late in the evening 4,000 bales changed hands, the following being some of the important deals:

SINDH TYPE: 600 bales, Sultanabad at Rs1,950, 100 bales, Shahdadpur at Rs1,950, and 200 bales, Sinjoro at Rs1,975.