KARACHI, Sept 1: The cotton market on Thursday showed firm trend followed by reports of pest attack in some of the areas of the Punjab cotton belt. But spinners and mills did not made any panic buying amid reports of lower crop estimate because of damage to the standing crop in the Punjab cotton belt, brokers said.
The reports of lower crop estimate were circulated by the Punjab Farmer Association based on their private survey, warning both the users and official sources about lower crop figure, they said.
During the last season, a record crop of 12.347m bales was turned out by the ginners, out of which the spinners purchased 12m bales and 0.9m bales from the TCP, which means the spinners and mills are in a comfortable supply position and are least worried over the lower crop reports.
They also ruled the possibility of any major change in the prevailing price outlook if a balance under the supply and demand factors was judiciously maintained and there was no speculative trading.
“But reports of lowering the official target to 13m bales from the original official crop estimate of 15m bales did worry the spinners and mills on the perception that prices could rise from the current competitive levels after normal picking of phutti is resumed in the southern Punjab cotton belt, one of the major producers of fine cotton,” they added.
As a result, most of the deals in lower Sindh lint were done around the previous levels, an average rate being Rs2,200 per maund and that of central Punjab variety around Rs2,250 to Rs2,300.
While local official spot rates were held unchanged at the overnight level of Rs2,225, New York cotton futures fell by 0.60 and 0.54 cents per lb for the ruling October and the distant December settlements at 48.15 and 49.74 cents per lb, respectively.
Ready offtake was active tolling 8,000 bales, following being some of the notable deals:
SINDH VARIETY: 1,400 bales, Shahdadpur at Rs2,215 to Rs2,230; 1,000 bales, Mirpurkhas at Rs2,175 to Rs2,200; 200 bales, Tando Adam at Rs2,170 and 400 bales at Rs2,200 to Rs2,215; 400 bales, Khipro at Rs2,175 to Rs2,190; 600 bales, Jhole at Rs2,215; and 200 bales, Sanghar at Rs2,200.
PUNJAB TYPE: 700 bales, Burewala at Rs2,290 to Rs2,300; 300 bales, Ghaziabad at Rs2,325; 600 bales, Bahawalnagar at Rs2,260 to Rs2,275; 500 bales, Sahiwal at Rs2,250 to Rs2,275; 200 bales, Bahawalpur at Rs2,280; 200 bales, Mian Channu at Rs2,275; 200 bales, Layah at Rs2,225; 400 bales, Arifwala at Rs2,300; 200 bales, Vehari at Rs2,275; and 200 bales, Gaggon at Rs2,300.