KARACHI, Nov 27: Trading activity on the cotton market on Wednesday slightly slowed after hectic buying during the last couple of sessions as spinners took a technical breather and kept to the sidelines most of the time.

Although official spot rates were marked further higher by Rs15 to Rs2,100 per maund, in physical trading prices remained stable around the previous levels.

As a result, daily ready off-take fell to about 15,000 bales as compared to 40,000 bales as spinners took stock of their inventories before resuming fresh buying.

Floor brokers attributed the last couple of sessions’ hectic mill buying to fall in arrivals of phutti and conflicting reports about the size of the crop but as far as the spinners are concerned they have their own perceptions about the supplies of lint.

“There are, however, fears in the spinning sector about the quality of lint in due course and that is perhaps why leading among them are out to grab the fine lots”, they added.

Market sources said there could be conflicting view about the size of the crop but both the private sector and the official agencies agree on one point that the figure could be well over 10m bales mark.

“A record daily arrival of phutti into the ginneries at the rate of 0.126m bales during the first fortnight of the current month eloquently speaks of the developments in the cotton fields”, they said.

And spinner know it pretty well that they have to meet their entire annual consumption demand from the local stuff as the imports of lint may not be competitive in the backdrop of reports of a global shortage of the commodity, they added.

The New York Cotton Exchange March contract currently ruling around 50 cents per lb indicates that the local lint is still competitive and imports could be expensive during the next quarter.

While the local spot rates remained firm, New York cotton futures continue to depict highly erratic movements each day and fell by 0.65 and 0.71 cents per lb at 47.20 and 50.18 cents per lb respectively for both the ruling December and the March settlements.

Ready business was relatively slow totalling about 15,000 bales as under:

SINDH VARIETY: 800 bales, Sanghar at Rs1,965 to Rs2,025, 500 bales, each Daur and Bucheri at Rs2,050.