KARACHI, May 15: Cotton market on Thursday maintained a firm trend as official spot rates were again revised upward by Rs50 per maund owing to pressure on ready supplies.

But in physical trading some of the deals were finalised at much higher rates at Rs3,600 as spinners tried to grab the floating stock of fine lots, dealers said.

A fresh fall in the world cotton prices seems to have no relevance to the local market where price outlook is essentially guided by the supply and demand factors, they added.“The higher bids by some leading spinners around Rs3,900 per maund for the new crop lint from the central Punjab cotton belt, where the crop is sown early, seem to have changed the entire future price outlook,” said Naseem Usman, a leading cotton analyst.

He said prices could rise above Rs4,000 in near future and no spinner cartel would be blamed for.

“If the lint will become that expensive then what will be the prices of phutti as the sowing in major cotton growing areas will have to be completed by June 15,” another analyst said.The new crop is being sown amid shortage of irrigation water, severe power outages and higher costs of farm inputs. “If everything goes well, the grower may not sell his phutti below Rs2,000 per 40 kg,” they said.

The cotton market is heading for a crisis because even a good crop may not ensure competitive lint supplies to the textile sector.

New York futures remained under pressure and were marked further down by 0.91 and 0.89 cents at 69.99 and 75.63 cents per lb for both the ruling new crop July and October settlements, respectively.

The following deals were done in the ready section: 1,000 bales, Rahim Yar Khan, 800 bales, Upper Sindh and 1,000 bales mill-to-mill at Rs3,600 per maund.