KARACHI: The cotton market witnessed frantic buying from mills as well as some exporters on Tuesday after phutti (seed-cotton) arrivals into ginneries picked up momentum after staying slow owing to suspension of cotton picking in Sindh due to Hindu festival holidays. At the outset, there was strong demand for quality cotton as leading spinners moved to the forefront, followed by some exporters.

Much of the activity was witnessed in Sindh variety because the quality of lint improving with the progress of the season. Contrary to this, Punjab where season starts late, the cotton quality was still low, but would improve in coming days, the brokers said.

Cotton Commissioner Dr Khalid Abdullah has re­­cently stated that the country could be producing around 14.3 million bales this season. However, market talks suggested that it was too early to come up with any final production figures.

The KCA revised spot rates by Rs50 to Rs8,050 per maund.

Trading on the ready counter was brisk and following major deals were reported to have changed hands: 2,000 bales, Tando Adam, at Rs8,100 to Rs8,150; 1,600 bales, San­ghar, Rs8,100 to Rs8,150; 2,000 bales, Shahdadpur, Rs8,100 to Rs8,150; 1,800 bales, Mir­purkhas, Rs8,100 to Rs8,150; 1,000 bales, Nawabshah, Rs8,150; 600 bales, Khane­wal, Rs8,250 to Rs8,300; 800 bales, Bandhi, Rs8,150; 600 bales, Mongi Bangla, Rs8,230 to Rs8,290; 600 bales, Pir Mehal, Rs8,250 to Rs8,300; 600 bales, Mian Channu, Rs8,250 to Rs8,300 and 400 bales Tiba Sultan, at Rs8,250.

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2018