KARACHI, March 26: Trading activity on the cotton market on Monday failed to pick up in the absence of strong demand both from the spinners and mills. Some of the weaker links of the leading textile groups were, however, in the market and lifted modest lots below Rs2,700 per maund.

Although leading spinners and textile mills remained conspicuous by their absence mainly relying on their import shipments, some of them however lifted big lots of fine quality lint at Rs2,700 per maund, dealers said.

They said leading ginners who hold on the bulk of the unsold stocks were reluctant to sell fine lots below Rs2,700 per maund as most of them entertain the idea of a fresh price flare-up in the coming weeks owing to a short crop.

“Pressure on supplies in the backdrop of falling unsold stocks could trigger price war among spinners leading to further increase,” predicts a leading broker.

He said ginners may not be holding an unsold stock of slightly above half million bales, while spinners have to go a long way to see the current year through.

Market sources did not foresee any change in the future price outlook irrespective of the size of imports from different sources and indications were that spinners may remain at the receiving end until the arrival of new crop.

Some others, however, predict that an improvement on the textile export front could provide the needed push to the textile sector to remain competitive both on the local and foreign markets. Official spot rates were again quoted unchanged at Rs2,600 per maund, although some of deals were done well above them.

Mill ready offtake was light amounting to 3,000 bales as under: 400 bales, Shahdadpur at Rs2,600, 900 bales, Sadiqabad at Rs2,635 and 1,675 bales, Bagh-o-Bahar at Rs2,700.