KARACHI, Sept 5: Cotton market on Wednesday remained under pressure on Wednesday as ginners further lowered their asking prices owing to steady arrivals of phutti.
Most of the deals in the ready section were finalised lower by Rs25 to Rs50 per maund as ginners were not inclined to hold long positions of unsold stocks in an uncertain market, floor brokers said.
“What seems to have caused the persistent decline in prices over the last couple of sessions was report of resumption of phutti picking operations in the major growing areas and steady arrivals into the ginneries,” they said.
The other destabilising factor was that growers were not inclined to deliver phutti into the ginneries on an unfixed basis as they generally do in normal conditions to sell it at the higher levels but the current decline in prices have unnerved them, they added.
Thus the panic-selling by the growers have an identical impact on the lint prices and spinners, who had been on the receiving end for the last couple of weeks, are now happy and lifting all the lots offered by the ginners.
“The market is progressively edging close to our export parity levels,” said a leading spinner, adding the important factor was that the crop may be short but not to that extent as was rumoured which had sent prices to record high level of Rs3,450 per maund”.
Market sources said the interesting feature was that the local market was operating on supply and demand factors rather than following the bullish trend on international markets.
Official spot rates were again quoted lower by Rs25 per maund at Rs2,775.
New York cotton futures on the other hand rose by 0.58 and 0.60 cents per lb at 59.45 and 61.57 cents respectively for both the ruling October and the forward December contracts.
Mill ready off-take, notably in Sindh type was active totalling another 15,000 bales as under:
SINDH TYPE: 1,200 bales, Mirpurkhas at Rs2,700 to Rs2,775, 2,000 bales each, Shahdadpur and Tando Adam at Rs2,775 to Rs2,825, 1,400 bales, Sanghar at Rs2,775 to Rs2,899, 1,000 bales, Khipro at Rs2,750 to Rs2,775, 1,000 bales, Hyderabad at Rs2,750 to Rs2,800 and 400 bales Jhole at Rs2,800.
PUNJAB VARIETY: 200 bales, Bahawalnagar at Rs2,800, 800 bales, Burewala at Rs2,800 to Rs2,850, 400 bales, Pakpattan at Rs2,825, 600 bales, Arifwala, 400 bales each, Chichawatni and Mian Channu at Rs2,800 to Rs2,825.