KARACHI, July 12: Quietly steady conditions were witnessed on the cotton market on Friday as ginners were not inclined to lower their asking prices amid predictions of an expected pressure on ready supplies.

Floor brokers said the falling unsold stocks with the ginners, delayed new crop from the lower Sindh ginneries owing to shortage of irrigation water at the time of sowing and higher world prices have altogether changed the future cotton outlook and ginners are not that fool to sell below their asking prices.

Although the time has passed to recoup early season losses when ginners had to sell their lint around Rs1,225 per maund and there were fears of a possible market collapse until the TCP intervention saved the situation, those ginners who still hold a sizeable lots may certainly benefit from an expected price flare-up, they added.

Earlier in the season, spinners opted for the foreign stuff, available on an average price of 30 to 33 cents per lb and neglected the local market, which caused sharp decline in prices.

However, as the mill consumption expanded after more spinning units resumed operations, there was a pressure on ready supplies despite a second consecutive bumper crop of 10.5m bales and the consequent rise in prices.

According to market sources ginners may now not have more than 0.2m bales in their godowns and that is perhaps why they are not in a hurry to sell them at lower rates.

“The total supplies up to the end of the current season on Aug 31, with the ginners including about 0.2m bales of TCP may not be more than 0.150m bales and that figure worries spinners as they will be needed another half a million bales or more to meet their seasonal consumption needs”, brokers said.

Both the ginners and the spinners are trying to outwit each other on price front and who will benefit from the current supply position is not clear, he says.

But some others said local prices will generally be guided by the New York cotton futures, which are now heading to hit new peak level of 50 cents per lb.

Meanwhile, both the private sector exporters and the TCP on July 10, registered export contracts for 588 and 1,000 bales respectively with the Export Promotion Bureau, making the total to 0.243m bales.

There was no change in the official spot rates, which were held unchanged at Rs1,850 per maund without 15 per cent sales tax, while New York cotton futures fell sharply by 1.89 and 1.83 cents per lb at 46.06 and 47.75 cents for both the ruling October and the forward December settlements respectively.

Owing to absence of leading spinners, ready business modest as about 1,500 bales of the current crop from the central Sindh ginneries changed hands between Rs1,775 to Rs1,850 per maund.