KARACHI: Rising cotton prices prevented buyers from entering into big deals on Wednesday. However, some needy spinners continued to cover up their near future demand which helped lint price to stay firm.

According to market sources, high cotton prices have started to discourage buyers who are reluctant to pay beyond a certain price limits. Though buying for quality cotton continues but higher prices have started to affect viability of yarn, a spinner told Dawn.

The issue of quality cotton continues to haunt spinners who were not ready to take risk of losing an opportunity coming their way and build their stocks whenever possible.

Market sources said that at this stage it was difficult to assess how adversely cotton crop has been affected by the ongoing heat wave in Punjab and due to monsoon rains in lower Sindh.

Surprisingly phutti (seed cotton) prices continue to be higher indicating that growers — after disposing of around half of their crop at higher rates — now feel financially strong and have started holding back on their crop.

New York and Chinese cotton markets closed steady.

The Karachi Cotton Asso­ciation (KCA) spot rates were firm at overnight level.

The following major deals were reported to have changed hands on ready counter: 1,000 bales, Daharki, at Rs6,500; 1,600 bales, Saleh Pat, at Rs6,300 to Rs6,400; 1,400 bales, Rohri, at Rs6,300 to Rs6,400; 2,000 bales, Khairpur, at Rs6,350 to Rs6,375; 1,200 bales, Fazilpur, at Rs6460, 1600 bales, Rahimyar Khan, at Rs6,450; 1,600 bales, Rajan Pur, at Rs6,450; 1,200 bales, Ahmed Pur, at Rs6,375 to Rs6,400; 1,600 bales, Bahawalpur, at Rs6,350 to Rs6,400; 3,000 bales, Mianwali, at Rs6,400; 2,200 bales, Yazman, at Rs6,275 to Rs6,400; 1,200 bales, Chichawatni, at Rs6,300 to Rs6,350; 4,400 bales, Layyah, at Rs6,300 to Rs6,350; and 1,600 bales, Fort Abbas, at Rs6,275.

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2017