KARACHI, Feb 23: Cotton market on Friday lacked normal trading interest as both sellers and buyers kept to the sidelines partly because of a short session.

The near-term outlook appears to be bullish as ginners entertain higher price ideas in the coming weeks based on supply and demand factors.

Ready business fell to modest level despite the fact that some of the leading ginners offered to sell a good number of fine lots at a discount but spinners stayed away, said a leading broker.“The sudden pause in mill buying is not backed by any of the basic fundamentals despite their worries on the export front,” said a leading broker, adding “steep decline in daily offtake for the last two sessions reflects that leading among them are relying on the fresh import deals”.

But some others said a considerable decline in exports during January this year slowed down their ready buying in the hope of a fall in prices.

“The local lint is a bit costly as compared to our parity levels,” spinners claim, adding “we have to go slow to maintain a competitive edge on the export front”.

Market sources said spinners were playing hide-and-seek game with ginners and would continue it during the next couple of weeks in an apparent effort to keep ginners at their toes all the time.

But whether or not they lower their asking prices or decide to hold on to their unsold stock will be seen after the final crop figures are released by the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) in first week of next month, they said.

Official spot rates were, therefore, held unchanged at the overnight level of Rs2,525 in line with the stray lots that changed hands in the ready section.

New York cotton futures on the other hand showed fresh modest rise of 0.29 and 0.61 cents per lb at 54.95 and 53.17 cents per lb for both the matured March settlement and the ruling May contract respectively.

Ready business was slack as 2,000 bales, each Rahimyar Khan and Sadiqabad were done at Rs2,550-Rs2,525 per maund respectively.