KARACHI, Feb 21: Cotton market on Wednesday showed firm trend as ginners raised their asking prices by Rs25 per maund but spinners appeared to be in no obliging mood and stayed away.

Physical business, therefore, fell sharply although some of the leading mills purchased stray fine lots at Rs2,625 per maund against their forward sales, floor brokers said.

The interesting feature was that some of the mills holding surplus stocks for the current year offered stray lots to their needy counterparts on kind basis for a specified time, market sources said.

The market is rife with conflicting reports about forward import deals made by some of the leading spinners and mills from various sources. Some put the figure at 0.3m bales, while others say it could be around half a million bales, they said.

“Having a fair idea of the crop, leading ginners who are holding on bulk of the unsold stocks are eyeing further increase in prices in the coming weeks and are not inclined to sell below their pre-determined rates,” they said, adding “spinners are also not inclined to go above their export parity levels and held to the sidelines causing sharp drop in ready offtake”.

The other bullish factor appears to be higher world prices in the backdrop of recent increase in New York cotton futures, which has made import more expensive, they said.

New York cotton futures on Tuesday were quoted further higher by 0.61 and 0.23 cents at 54.61 and 52.55 cents per lb for both the maturing March and the distant May contracts respectively.

Official spot rates were quoted higher by Rs25 per maund at Rs2,525 in line with the average ready rates.

Ready offtake was modest totalling about 3,000 bales as under: 400 bales, Setharaja at Rs2,460, 400 bales, Daharki at Rs2,600, 600 bales, Rahimyar Khan at Rs2,625, 800 bales, Sadiqabad at Rs2,565 and 500 bales, inter-mill at Rs2,600.