KARACHI, May 19: Cotton prices on Monday remained stable as ginners held on firmly to their unsold positions despite a substantial decline in daily mill offtake.

Trading resumed on a dull note as leading spinners remained conspicuous by their absence apparently awaiting some positive developments on the cotton yarn exports. However, the mid-session witnessed the revival of stray activity as a section of local mills bid for some lots of inferior types from the central Sindh ginneries.

The tussle to tilt the price balance in their respective favours went on for some time as mills were not inclined to bid above their export parity levels, brokers said. Some lots did change hands but the physical activity remained at a low ebb in the absence of strong demand from spinners.

“Spinners have increased the intake of synthetic fibre to beat the higher lint prices and to cater to the increasing needs of the foreign markets for the blended fabrics”, they said.

At the same time spinners have lowered their local selling prices to relieve pressure on the piling unsold inventories of cotton yarn and line up funds to purchase lint from the local market, they added.

“The textile sector appears to be passing through a difficult period because of a considerable decline in export to far Eastern countries and until normal exports business resumes, their buying capacity may remain terribly low”, market sources said.

That is perhaps why no business is reported in the ready section despite the fact that ginners still hold an unsold stock of about 0.250m bales, bulk of which is claimed to be of fine quality, they said.

However, some of brokers having link with their Multan counterparts claim that the Punjab spinners are in the market and lifting daily modest number of lots from the southern Punjab ginneries where bulk of the unsold stocks are lying.

They said despite the fact that ginners are not inclined to lower their asking prices from the current average level of Rs2,525 per maund, some of them are inclined to clear the backlog well before the new crop from the lower Sindh cotton belt arrives.

Some local brokers said forward trading in the new crop from the lower Sindh ginneries is expected to resume by the end of the next month for delivery in late July or early August.

Official spot rates were firmly held at the weekend levels as ginners were not inclined to lower their asking prices at least for the near-term.

Ready business was light totalling about 2,000 bales but brokers failed to give details of the deals.