KARACHI, Sept 13: Cotton market on Wednesday witnessed a brisk trading activity as spinners and mills made active short-covering as some of the ginners lowered their asking prices followed by reports of steady arrivals of phutti into the ginneries.
Much of the activity was confined to the Sindh variety where some of the ginners offered lint at lower rates but on the other hand Punjab variety was traded around the overnight levels.
The notable feature was that some leading spinners who had a fair idea of the crop indulged in big lot business and tried to grab the floating stock at the offered prices, said a leading floor broker.
The important thing was, however, that selling originated from some of the prominent Sindh ginners but the reasons behind the sell-off was not immediately known, he added.
Some said pick-up in arrivals and steady fixing by the growers at the lower rates was one of the chief factors behind the softening but some other claimed leading growers appeared to be in a bit haste to sell and some of them sold below the prevailing phutti rate of Rs1,400 per 40 kg.
“But nobody could deny the fact that the crop is short as the recent official and private surveys indicate,” ginners said, adding “some negative whispering may have un-nerved growers to get out of the market at the current phutti rates”.
The fall followed by a rebound staged by the New York cotton futures after several lean sessions on revival of foreign buying.
New York cotton futures were quoted higher by 0.103 and 1.15 cents per lb at 51.03 and 53.24 cents for both the ruling October and the distant December settlements respectively.
But on the other hand official spot rates were lowered by Rs25 at Rs2,600 per maund for average quality.
Ready off-take was on the higher side owing to active mill buying and totalled about 15,000 bales, following being some of the notable deals.
SINDH TPYE: 800 bales, Mirpurkhas at Rs2,525 to Rs2,575, 400 bales, Sanghar at Rs2,575, 600 bales, 200 bales, Shahdadpur and Hala Rs2,600, 600 bales, Shahpur Chakkar, 800 bales, 200 bales, Matyari Tando Adam at Rs2,575, 600 bales, Khpro at Rs2,550.
MNH-Sawgin Punjab: 200 bales, Chishtian 400 bales, Arifwala, 200 bales, Gojra and 200 bales, Sahiwal at Rs2,675, 1,000 bales, Mian Channu at Rs2,700 to Rs2,715, 400 bales, Vehari at Rs2,675 to Rs2,700, 400 bales, Khanewal, 600 bales Bahawalpur, 400 bales, Pir Mahal and 200 bales, Hasilpur at Rs2,700.