KARACHI, April 26: Quietly steady conditions prevailed on the cotton market on Wednesday as buyers remained conspicuous by their absence for the second consecutive session, although some of the ginners lowered their asking prices.

But ready business remained on the lower side as leading spinner groups are eyeing the supplies from the TCP and foreign sources at the same time, which ever is cheaper, brokers said.

“The fall of the New York cotton futures for the ruling May contract below the benchmark price of 50-cent per lb seems to have changed the entire world cotton outlook at least for the near-term,” they said.

After having touched the seasonal peak level of 57 cents per lb, the ruling May contract fell to 49.50 cents per lb and it could fall further as the major buyers of the US cotton, notably China are out of the market for the near-term.

The forward July delivery was also marked down by 0.97 cents at 51.14 cents per lb, while May was off 0.61 cents but on the other forward contracts stayed firm above the 50-cent level.

The absence of spinners from the local market for the last couple of sessions reflects this phenomenon amid market talk of a sympathetic fall in local prices.

But ginners are said to be least worried as their worst period is now over, some others said, adding “unsold stocks lying with them are too low to create financial problems for any one of them”.

Meanwhile, there was no news about the next tender from the TCP as its high-ups seem to be busy in sugar imports to ease the local price situation.

Official spot rates remained basically unchanged from the previous level of Rs2,425 in the absence of feedback from the ready market where off-take remained dull.

Ready business was light as about 2,000 bales changed hands including 400 bales, from Vehari at Rs2,435.