KARACHI, Aug 10: The cotton market on Thursday showed an easy trend, as some of the ginners lowered heir asking prices followed by reports of steady arrivals of phutti into ginneries.

Official spot rates for the current crop were revised downward by Rs25 per maund after several weeks, which have been static around Rs2,500.

Floor brokers said reports that picking operations of phutti had been resumed in most of the areas of lower and central Sindh after weather conditions improved in the absence of fresh rain.

The perception that arrivals of phutti into the ginneries would be normal during the next couple of days, leading ginners made forward deals on the lower rates.

During the last week, Sindh lint was sold around Rs2,525 per maund as supplies were interrupted because heavy rain in the entire cotton belt for about a week and phutti picking operations were suspended.

Spinners and mills, however, kept to the sidelines most of the time anticipating further fall in prices after the arrival of phutti into ginneries further improved, dealers said.

They said the physical activity on the market was expected to further pick up during the next couple of sessions, as spinners needed more lint to cover their forward sales of textiles and cotton yarn.

In the central Punjab cotton belt where over a dozen ginning factories have resumed operations since last couple of weeks, prices remained stable as some of the deals were again finalised at around Rs2,650 per maund.

New York cotton futures showed a fractional rise of 0.3 and 0.13 cents at 54.78 and 56.66 cents per lb for both the ruling October and distant December settlements, respectively.

Ready offtake was light totalling around 1,200 bales, all from the lower Sindh ginneries done at around Rs2,500 per maund.