KARACHI: Buying interest revived on the cotton market as many needy spinners rushed back to replenish their stocks on Thursday. The undertone remained firm and outlook uncertain.

Floor brokers said that dwindling stocks, particularly of quality lint, forced many spinners to rush back and enter into short covering to meet their immediate needs.

The brokers believe that ginners body’s phutti (seed cotton) arrivals report released on Wednesday could be the last or second last this season. This would mean the current season would end two months earlier due to crop failure.

Consequently, a long gap of around six to seven months before the next cotton crop is worrying small spinners, who mostly depend on local cotton and lack money for imports, brokers added.

Shortage of quality lint hit the volume on Thursday and many spinners were disappointed that now they had to wait for the next session. Currently, only 1.2 million bales of unsold stocks are lying with ginners, who also seem to be in no hurry to sell in anticipation of better prices in the coming days.

The Karachi Cotton Association (KCA) spot rates were unchanged at overnight level. The New York cotton moved lower for all the contracts except far-off December 2016 which recorded a modest gain. Major deals on ready counter were: 200 bales from Mirpur Bethro, 800 bales from Shahdadpur, 400 bales from Sethraja, 1,000 bales from Dera Ghazi Khan, 400 bales from Multan, 1,000 bales from Mianwali, 400 bales from Khanpur, 3,000 bales from Rahimyar Khan, 400 bales from Sadiqabad.

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2016