KARACHI, July 5: Cotton market on Saturday maintained a steady trend as ginners held on to their positions and did not lower their asking prices despite falling mill demand.

Stray lots did change hands but mostly at the ginners pre-determined rate of Rs2,325 per maund irrespective of micronaire problems with the spinners and mills, dealers said.

During the last couple of sessions, new crop prices had fallen to Rs2,300 as some of the lower Sindh ginners sold in panic as piling of the unsold stocks of the new crop worried them.

But ginners raised their asking prices after spinners aired the idea of low micronaire of the new crop lint in trade, which in turn creates a number of problems for them on the export front, dealers said.

“The low daily volume of few hundred bales reflects that the battle of wits between the ginners and the spinners is at its peak as each one of them is inclined to tilt the price balance in their respective favours,” they said.

However, reports coming from the central Punjab cotton belt indicates that those ginners who had resumed operations after having purchased phutti from the lower Sindh ginners are worried over the piling of new crop lint stocks in the absence of mill buying.

Floor brokers said spinners are staying out of the market apparently in an effort to outwit ginners on the price front and forced them to sell in a bit haste.

But ginners knowing fully well about the supply position are holding on to their unsold positions on the perception that spinners being in short supply would be on the receiving end in the final analysis, they said.

“The New York cotton futures around 60 cents per lb are too expensive for the spinners keeping in view the world yarn prices and they could hardly miss an attractive bait of lower local prices,” they added.

Meanwhile, reports coming from the entire cotton belt say that the condition of the new crop is fairly satisfying and the recent rain in some of the areas has minimized the chances of pest attack.

There was a lull on the export front as during the last couple of weeks no fresh export deal was registered with the Export Promotion Bureau and the new crop total physical shipments remained unchanged at 0.138m bales up to June 23, 2003.

The official spot rates remained basically unchanged from the overnight levels in line with the ready deal for the new crop.

Ready business remained light as till late in the evening 800 bales of Sultanabad were sold at Rs2,325 per maund without 15 per cent sales tax.