KARACHI, Feb 9: Cotton prices on Monday eased modestly from the higher levels as spinners remained conspicuous by their absence despite being in a terrible short stock positions.

For the last couple of weeks notably in the pre-Eid holiday and post-Eid holiday sessions, both spinners and mills did not fully participate in the daily proceedings in an apparent effort to un-nerve ginners, brokers said. The daily offtake fell to a lowest ebb as the deadlock on price perceptions between the both differed widely and both held on to their respective positions.

"The modest decline of Rs25 per maund in the ginner asking prices, however, reflects that some of the weaker links among them are outwitted owing to the protracted absence of spinners," they said, adding "while leading among them who hold long unsold positions are not worried over their absence."

The perception among the ginners is that mills and spinners have to revert to the local market as their mounting consumption figures could not be met by an expensive imports, some other said, adding "the current downward price revision reflects change in inferior type rather than the contamination-free lots."

Meanwhile, a representative meeting of the Sindh ginners held here on late Monday evening in the Pakistan Cotton Ginners' local office was of the view that the government should intervene to correct the developing situation on the cotton front.

"In the absence of hedging facility, spinners and mills being sole buyers of the commodity are exploiting the situation despite a short crop," some of the participants of the meeting were of the view.

Ginners are expected to forward their demands to the chairman of of the Karachi Cotton Association for onward submission to the higher authorities concerned.

Spinners on the other hand complain that the recent increase of Rs4 per kg in prices of polyester fibre to Rs74 per kg together with higher lint prices have made textile more expensive in the world markets and that may have negative impact on the total exports during the current year.

Official spot rates were lowered by Rs25 to Rs3,225 from Rs3,250 at the last weekend owing to quality differentials. Ready offtake was light as barring some stray deals, which changed hands in the southern Punjab cotton belt, local brokers did not report any business.