KARACHI, Aug 12: Trading on the cotton market failed to pick up on Saturday as price ideas of buyers and sellers failed to find a meeting ground. Physical business was also affected by the two closures including Independence Day holiday as spinners did not make fresh commitments because of delivery problems.
After having lowered their asking prices from Rs2,525 per maund to Rs2,450, the Sindh ginners appear to be in obliging mood and have decided to held on to their unsold positions, floor brokers said.
There were more enquiries from the spinners and mills but as the price ideas of ginners and the spinners are poles apart, physical business continues to be the chief victim, they added.
For the last couple of sessions, spinners were playing hide-and-seek game with the ginners in apparent effort to outwit them on the price front.
“How can we sell lint below our parity levels after having purchased phutti from the growers well above the official support price,” ginners said, adding “the current offering prices by the spinners are well below our processing charges not to speak of a profit on investment”.
However, local brokers say normal activity could be resumed by the next week as by that time sanity is expected to return to the cotton trade followed by fresh pick up in arrivals of phutti into the ginneries owing to clear weather supposed to be ideal for picking operations.
The mill intake in the central Punjab ginneries was claimed to be normal as there are willing buyers between Rs2,600 and Rs2,625 per maund but lower Sindh ginners are not inclined to toe that line of action, market sources said.
Meanwhile, there is no fresh news from the TCP apparently because it was failed to receive reasonable rates in last auctions as both local and foreign buyers lifted modest quantity of the total bales on offer, they added.
Ready off-take was light as till late in the evening about 800 bales of both current and new crop changed hands well below the official spot rate of Rs2,475 per maund.
New York cotton futures on the other hand came in for active profit-selling by the speculative traders on higher crop ideas in some of the leading producers. Both the ruling October and forward December contracts fell by 1.34 and 1.12 cents at 53.74 and 55.74 cents per lb respectively.