KARACHI: Listless conditions prevailed on the cotton market on Wednesday where buyers remained absent and underlying sentiment was also weak.

There is a general feeling that as long as the off-take of cotton yarn does not improve cotton trading would remain depressed and slow.

Floor brokers said that the textile sector is currently faced with liquidity crunch owing to slow off-take of cotton yarn in the domestic market. They added that the situation would persist until government takes necessary measures to check flow of cheap cotton yarn from across the border.

But it is equally true, they said, that as the current cotton season has almost reached fag end, big spinners have already built their inventories to meet their demand till the arrival of new crop.

However, some small spinners are still active at the lower level in the market to meet their near-future demand. The limited cotton stocks left in the country have created shortage of quality lint, brokers added.

The New York cotton market moved higher for second consecutive session where all the future contracts ended with fresh gains.

The Karachi Cotton Association (KCA) spot rates stood firm at overnight level and trading on ready counter was still extremely slow.

The following deals were reported to have changed hands on ready counter: 400 bales, Haroonabad, at Rs6,700; 400 bales, Faqirwali, at Rs6,800; 400 bales, Fort Abbas, at Rs6,800; and 3,000 bales, Sadiqabad, at Rs7,100.