KARACHI, May 6: Steady conditions were witnessed on the cotton market on Thursday as ginners and spinners remained locked in a price war but it appears to be a no-win situation for the latter.

Dealers said owing to an expected pressure on the ready supplies amid reports of falling stocks, ginners may be in a position to further raise their asking prices during the next couple of weeks.

According to unofficial figures, ginners may not be holding an unsold stock of more than 0.8m bales in their godowns, while spinners and mills still have to go a long way to meet their annual consumption needs.

They said some of the spinners have already offered to buy a substantial number of lots at Rs3,100 on credit basis and stray lots have already changed hands at this rate.

"Owing to highly volatile price movements on the New York Cotton Exchange over the last couple of weeks, local spinners could plan on a long-term basis, although they still need about 2m bales to make up the shortfall", says a leading broker.

During the last couple of sessions, New York cotton futures had erratically fluctuated around or below 60 cents per lb, never allowing spinners to make forward deals, he said.

However, most of the leading spinners and mills were trying to grab the floating stock of low-mic lint with a view to blend it with fine lots to make the end-product more competitive.

All the low-mic lots offered by central Sindh or southern Punjab ginners were readily picked up by the spinners between Rs2,275 on the lower side and Rs2,825 on the higher side depending on the staple length of the lots in trade.

New York cotton futures on Wednesday finished with gains ranging from 1.33 and 0.86 cents for both the maturing May and the forward July settlements at 61.93 and 60.54 cents per lb respectively.

Official spot rates on the other hand were firmly held at the last levels despite a wide price differential in physical trading. Ready offtake was modest totalling about 8,000 bales, the following being some of the notable deals:

SINDH VARIETY: 600 bales, Khipro at Rs2,625, 400 bales, Dharki at Rs2,800, 520 bales, Salehpat at Rs2,700 and 800 bales, Bhiria at Rs2,725.

PUNJAB TYPE: 600 bales, Bahawalpur, on credit at Rs3,100, 700 bales, Sadiqabad at Rs2,825, 108 bales at Rs2,275 and 100 bales, at Rs2,400.