KARACHI: The cotton market on Thursday showed signs of revival amid reports that trade negotiations bet­ween China and the United States ended on positive note.

It was interesting to note that many open-end textile mills were seen in the trading ring which indicated that the market is gaining confidence in the background of China-US trade negotiations.

Analysts believed that this would help world trade revive. Global trade has been going slow ever since the two countries entered into a tariff war by imposing heavy duties on each other imports.

Meanwhile, Pakistani textile exhibitors who participated in Heimtextil fair in Frankfurt have received good response from international buyers. This positive response has been driven by massive rupee devaluation and cut in gas prices. Locally, buying interest from some leading spinning mills helped improve posture of the market. However, ginners holding big stocks of unsold cotton are not ready to part ways with the quality cotton. Consequently, trading volume somewhat remained moderate but outlook for near future was positive.

The Karachi Cotton Association spot rates were steady at overnight level at Rs8,700 per maund.

The following deals were reported to have changed hands on ready counter: 400 bales, station Nawabshah, at Rs8,300; 600 bales, Rohri, at Rs8,500; 400 bales, Ghotki, at Rs8,900; 400 bales, Khanpur, at Rs9,000; 800 bales, Rahim Yar Khan, at Rs8,800-8,900; 1,400 bales, Alipur, at Rs8,900; 1,000 bales, Fazilpur, at Rs8,850; 600 bales, Khanewal, at Rs8,700; and 300 bales, Fort Abbas, at Rs8,425.

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2019