KARACHI: Sustained buy­­­ing from mills helped prices to stay steady on the cotton market on Saturday. The underlying sentiment also remained firm and positive.

The US Department of Agriculture’s report that showed higher off-take of cotton during the outgoing quarter helped induce sentiment.

India, harvesting a bumper cotton crop of 40 million bales, has also entered the world cotton market. However, higher prices fixed by the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) for export are somewhat helping the domestic market to stabilise.

Previously, there were fears that large quantity of cheap Indian cotton would find its way into the domestic market, pushing down lint prices further.

The expected phutti arrivals and cotton consumption report of the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) in the first week of February is expected to show higher lifting of lint by spinners against slowing down of phutti arrivals.

The New York cotton market after moving higher for three consecutive sessions came under selling pressure where all the future contracts ended with modest losses.

The Karachi Cotton Asso­ciation’s (KCA) spot rates remained unchanged on Saturday.

Major deals finalised on ready counter were: 2,600 bales Sanghar at Rs4,300, 800 bales Shahdadpur at Rs4,000 to Rs4,600, 800 bales Kumb at Rs4,700, 400 bales Rasoolabad at Rs4,600, 400 bales Gambat at Rs4,700, 400 bales Fort Abbas at Rs4,600, 400 bales Shujabad at Rs4,750, 600 bales Tonsa Sharif at Rs4,800, 600 bales Mianwali at Rs4,775 to Rs4,950, 600 bales Rahimyar Khan at Rs4,900 and 600 bales Khanpur at Rs5,000.

The following are Saturday’s new crop Karachi Cotton Association (KCA) official spot rates for local dealings in Pak rupees for base grade 3 staple length 1-1/32” micronair value between 3.8 to 4.9 NCL.

Published in Dawn, February 1st, 2015

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