KARACHI, Feb 12: Trading on the cotton market on Monday resumed on an insipid note owing partly to slowdown in mill buying and partly higher asking prices.

But unlike the previous week spinners made active short-covering of low-mic lint, their appetite for the inferior lots seems to have reached a saturation point and leading among them opted for fine variety, brokers said.

But some others said most of the prominent ginners had already exhausted stocks of the low-mic lint and were holding on to the fine lots for still better prices.

Stray lots of fine lint did change hands but around Rs2,600 and Rs2,625 per maund as a leading textile group was keen buyer at this rate to cover their forward positions against foreign sales, they said.

“The activity on the cotton market could swing either-way in the backdrop of a short crop well below the annual consumption needs of the textile industry,” ginners said, adding “but we are not in a hurry to indulge in hasty selling as we now hold manageable unsold stocks”.

They said spinners would resort to panic buying in one session and stay away the very next day in apparent effort to keep us on the toes all the time to sell at the lower rates.

“I think any amount of import of lint to meet the expected shortfall of the local crop may not disturb the ruling price pattern as the local stuff still keeps an edge over the imported stuff both in terms of quality and price,” claims a leading ginner.

Official spot rates were, therefore, again held unchanged at the previous level of Rs2,525 per maund.

Ready business was comparatively slow as leading spinners kept to the sidelines and made selective buying.

The following are some of the deals which went through: 2,000 bales, Gothki, Mirpur Mathelo and Daharki at Rs2,575-2,600, 600 bales, Mahrabpur at Rs2,460, 1,000 bales, Rahimyar Khan at Rs2,575 to Rs2,6000 and 400 bales, Malisi at Rs2,625.