KARACHI, Jan 27: The cotton market on Thursday maintained a firm trend as ginners held on to their positions and appear to be in no obliging mood to the spinner overtures.

Physical business remained light as price ideas of buyers and sellers were poles apart and failed to find a meeting ground in the absence of matching selling offers, brokers said.

Some of the fine lots from upper Sindh ginneries managed to fetch the highest price so far at Rs2,200, sending signals to the mills and spinners that they are now no more the victim of the production glut, they said.

During the last couple of years, lint from the southern Punjab cotton belt was sold at a premium being contamination-free as compared to its counterparts in Sindh, but this season upper Sindh K-68 is in strong demand because of its fine quality.

"The market seems to be in the tight grip of ginners who are holding on to their positions on the perception that unlike the previous seasons, the spinners and mills are now at the receiving end at least for the near-term," market sources said.

The spinners and mills appear to be in no haste and are making guarded buying to keep prices within their export parity levels. With the TCP sitting pretty comfortable on its inventory of 2.7m bales awaiting further heating of the market, which could bail out it from large inventory, the spinners have reduced their daily intake as higher asking prices are above their export parity level, they said.

About Rs30 billion are tied to the TCP tally of 2.7m bales, but it has to hold it until it is offered a fair price from the foreign buyers, some others said. Official spot rates were again quoted unchanged, although some of the fine lots were traded well above them.

New York cotton futures maintained overnight level and while the ruling March was firmly held at the last level of 46.78 cents per lb, the forward May showed a fractional rise of 0.6 cents at 47.93. Ready off take was modest totalling about 10,000 bales, including some bit lots as under:

SINDH TYPE: 4,000 bales, Dharki, Gothki and Mirpur Mathelo at Rs2,150 to Rs2,200; and 800 bales, Sanghar at Rs2,000 to Rs2,050.

PUNJAB VARIETY: 3,000 bales, Rahimyar Khan at Rs2,100; and 1,000 bales, Khanpur also at this rate.