KARACHI, Sept 20: Cotton prices on Tuesday eased from the current levels on hast selling by the ginners followed by steady arrivals of phutti into the ginneries during the last couple of sessions.
Floor brokers said leading growers were holding on to their unsold stocks of phutti to get better prices pending the resumption of procurement operations by the TCP.
After having flooded the ginneries with phutti, the growers fixed their entire produce at the official spot rates, they said.
As a result, most of the leading growers managed to get a fair price slightly below Rs1,000 or around it, which in turn has an identical negative impact on the lint price, they said.
“The lint prices should have risen followed by reports of lower arrivals of phutti into the ginneries, according to maiden new season figures released by the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA),” they said but instead they were lowered based on the latest arrivals of phutti.
The latest figures released by the PCGA are based on the early season arrivals, which are about a half as compared to the previous season and should have pushed prices higher.
“The local market also ignored the at least for the near-term strong rebound staged by the New York cotton futures on reports of lower production in the US owing to recent hurricane and threat of another,” market sources said adding “the market is apparently reacting to local supply and demand factors.”
New York cotton futures rose by limit-gain of 2.18 and 2.21 cents per lb for both the ruling October and the distant December settlements at 50.17 and 51.98 cents per lb respectively.
Local official spot rates were marked down by Rs25 at Rs2,125 per maund in line with those at which physical business is done in the ready section.
Ready offtake was large totalling about 10,000 bales as under:
SINDH VARIETY: 2,600 bales, Shahdadpur at Rs2,125 to 2,150.00, 1,400 bales, Mirpurkhas at 2,075 to 2,100, 2,000 bales, Tando Muhammad Khan at 2,125 to 2,150, 200 bales, Shahpur Chakkar at 2,150, 200 bales, Tando Adam at 2,070 and 200 bales, Nawabshah at 2,155.
PUNJAB TYPE: 200 bales, Mian Channu at Rs2,175 to 2,200, 200 bales, Vehari at 2,190, 200 bales, DG Khan at 2,175, 600 bales, Ghaziabad at 2,215 to 2,225, 200 bales, Ghaziabad at 2,200, 200 bales, each, Pir Mahal, Chichawatni, Haroonabad at 2,225, 200 bales, Bahawalpur at 2,200, 600 bales, Rajanpur at 2,175, 200 bales, each Burewala and Bahawalngar at 2,200, and 200 bales each Fazalpur and Garma Raja at 2,175.