KARACHI, May 18: Physical activity on the cotton market on Tuesday fell to a low ebb as spinners and mills remained conspicuous by their absence throughout the session.

Both were mulling the likely bullish impact of the lower crop figure at about 9.8m bales and an unsold stock of below 0.8m bales on the ruling prices of lint during the coming weeks, dealers said.

Ginners also kept to the sidelines, although some of them have already raised their asking prices for fine lots above Rs3,000, which drove the spinners out of the market, they said.

"The ready offtake will remain slow during the next couple of sessions also as both the ginners and the spinners will have an overview of the world supply and demand situation before taking final positions," says a prominent broker.

Much will depend on the international prices in the coming weeks, he said. "If they fall below the 60 cent per lb, the spinners will opt for imports on bridge in the supply gaps and if they rose further, local lint could get still better price."

New York cotton futures, which could have an either-way bearing on the local prices, are also endeavouring to find a direction for themselves amid alternate bouts of buying and selling owing to the prevailing "speculative squeeze", market sources said.

However, one thing appear certain that the ginners appear to be a little worried over the latest crop situation and are holding fast to their unsold stocks. "Of late, mills' monthly intake has touched the high mark of 0.950m bales, the unsold stocks with the ginners are barely enough for two week," they said.

The chief worry of the mills is to contain any further price flare-up, which will terribly upset their export competitiveness, they said and added "that was perhaps why they are playing a hide and seek game with the ginners for the last couple of weeks."

New York cotton futures on Monday finished lower by 0.78 and 0.50 cents per lb at 64.21 and 62.20 cents per lb for both the ruling July and the forward October settlements, respectively.

But on the other hand there was no change in the local spot rates, which were firmly held at the previous levels in the absence of ready business. Ready business was slow and leading brokers did not report any deal, but reports coming from the southern Punjab and upper Sindh cotton belt indicate stray lots did change hands, details of which were not immediately available.