KARACHI, Jan 25: Physical activity on the cotton market on Saturday showed a modest expansion as spinners and mills covered their positions against forward sales of cotton yarn.
Prices remained stable below the Rs2,300 per maund mark as some of the leading spinners indulged in big-lot business and lifted all the lots including two big deals of 4,000 bales offered by the ginners.
Floor brokers said the re-entry of the private sector exporters appears to be the chief factor behind the revival of mill demand. The spinners and mills have curtail their daily intake after ginners raised their asking prices to Rs2,300 per maund followed by reports of a short crop, they added.
Exporters’ intake is modest and in no way could be considered a bullish market factor, they said adding moreover, their major thrust is on inferior types rather than the fine ones.
According to official figures total purchases made by the exporters so far are not more than 0.1m bales, which forms a small portion of the total production of 9.1m bales and could hardly be a bullish market factor, they say.
“It is all spinners affair who play on both sides of the fence in a bid to keep prices in competitive and in line with their export parity levels”, they added.
But the general perception is that the future price outlook will be clear by the first week of the next month as by that time phutti arrival figures for the fortnight ending Jan 31, will be released by the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA).
Meanwhile, private sector exporters have sold another 3,300 bales to the importers of Indonesia, Bangladesh and Japan, raising the total to 87,585 bales including 53,498 bales of the old crop.
Physical shipments of lint since Sept 1, 2002 to Jan 15, 2003 totalled 0.123m bales, comprising only 10,319 bales of the new crop and 35,365 bales of the old crop. Out of the total, private sector exporters shipped 45,684 bales and the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) 76,940 bales.
Official spot rates did not show any change owing to firm conditions prevailing in the ready section and were held unchanged but New York cotton futures posted fresh modest rise of 0.8 and 0.3 cents for both the ruling March and the distant May contracts at 50.31 and 54.33 cents per lb respectively.
Ready offtake was active as till late in the evening about 15,000 bales changed hands, the following being some of the notable deals:
SINDH TYPE: 400 bales, Nayabad at Rs1,975, 200 bales, Sanghar at Rs2,050, 100 bales, Khipro at Rs2,050, 4,000 bales, K-68 upper Sindh at Rs2,250, 600 bales, Kanderio at Rs2,150 and 400 bales, Dadu at Rs2,175.
PUNJAB VARIETY: 600 bales, Chistian at Rs2,180, 3,800 bales, Alipur at Rs2,250 to Rs2,290.