KARACHI, Feb 15: Trading activity on the cotton market on Thursday considerably slowed down as spinners and mills kept to the sidelines ahead of the release of phutti arrival figures for the fortnight ended Feb 15.

Analysts said that the absence of buyers from the market reflected that spinners and mills were expected to re-fix their buying strategy for the next couple of weeks based on the fresh arrival figures, which lead to a crop shortfall.

“No one deny the fact the crop is short but mills are inclined to know the exact figure on which they will base their future imports to bridge the supply gap,” they added.

However, stray lots did change hands, mostly from the Sindh ginneries, while there was relative quiet on the Punjab front partly owing to higher asking prices by the ginners.

Floor brokers said some of the leading textile groups are probing the foreign markets to place import orders for the next quarter ending May 31, 2007.

The persistent fall in New York cotton futures seem to have changed the world price outlook as sellers including from the US are awaiting to resume sales after prices settled down around 50-cents per lb plus.

Local brokerage houses said some of the leading spinners had already made forward purchases for about 0.250m bales from various sources and shipments are expected to start by the exporters next month.

Some others are awaiting official decision on imports of lint from India via overland route, which will be a bit cheaper, they added.

Official spot rates again remained pegged at the overnight level for an average quality of lint, but fine varieties were done above them.

New York cotton futures on the other hand fell by 0.83 and 1.00 cents for both the ruling March and the distant May contracts at 51.76 and 51.75 cents per lb respectively.

Ready business was light totalling 10,000 bales as under: 4,000 bales, upper Sindh fine type, at Rs2,575-2,600, 3,100 bales, Shahdadpur, at Rs2,480-2,565 and 400 bales, Dadu at Rs2,435.