KARACHI, Nov 24: Active trading was witnessed on the cotton market on Wednesday as spinners and mills continued to build-up long positions at the current levels owing to comfortable supply position in the backdrop of higher crop estimates.

Bulk of the business was transacted on quality basis as spinners appeared to be too quality-conscious and were out to grab the floating stock owing to the presence of TCP as a second buyer, brokers said.

Most of the spinners and mills were said to be fully booked with firm orders for the higher counts of cotton yarn and were out to cover their forward positions in line with their export parity levels, they said.

Sindh lint was available between Rs1,775-1,975 per maund, while its counterpart in the Punjab cotton belt was quoted at Rs1,915 on the lower side and at Rs2,000 on the higher side depending on the quality.

Floor brokers said the recent progressive increase in New York cotton futures despite reports of global production glut was being ignored here at least for the near-term as local prices were largely guided by the supply and demand factors. But some leading cotton analysts predicted local prices could rise from the current level by the middle of the next month when a fair idea of the total crop would be available.

They apparently base their assumption on reports that world consumption was also expected to rise as lower prices could stimulate more consumption from the users early next year.

However, it is anybody's guess whether or not local prices follow the lead of the global trend or remain stable around the current levels depending on the total crop size. But one thing appears certain that the total production could fall below the annual consumption needs of the mills, which is expected to touch the high mark of about 13m bales, they added.

Official spot rates again remained basically unchanged from the previous level in the absence of any major change in the ready rates. New York cotton futures on the other hand turned mixed.

The ruling December contract rose further by 0.22 cents at 49.00 cents per lb close to its benchmark of 50 cents, the forward March fell by 0.44 cents at 43.55, the gap between the two contracts abnormal. Ready off-take was active as till late on Tuesday evening another 20,000 bales changed hands, the following being some of the notable deals:

SINDH VARIETY: 3,000 bales, K-68, upper Sindh at Rs1,975, 400 bales, each Sanghar and Tando Adam at Rs1,775 to Rs1,800.

PUNJAB TYPE: 2,000 bales, Rahimyar Khan, 1,000 bales, Khanpur, 1,500 bales, Alipur, 1,000 bales, Yazman at Rs1,980-1,990, 2,000 bales, Sadiqabad at Rs1,965 to Rs2,000, 1,000 bales, Bahawalnagar at Rs1,950, 400 bales, Fort Abbas at Rs1,915, 800 bales, Hasilpur at Rs1,950-1,965, 1,400 bales, Shujabad at Rs1,975 to Rs2,000 and 1,000 bales, Rajanpur at Rs1,975-1,980.