Drop in volume of business seen at Pakistan cotton market during weekend

As Ginners preferred to wait on sidelines due to depleted stock and delay in new crop, volume of business dropped on the cotton market on Saturday. According to dealers, the official spot rate remained unchanged at Rs 5450. In the ready session, approximately, 2000 bales between price range Rs 3750-5550 changed hands. Seed cotton rates in Sindh also stayed unchanged at Rs 2000-2600 while in Punjab prices registered at Rs 2400-3100

Limited unsold stock of lint cotton and delay in the arriving of next crop which will not be reaching ginneries before last week of July is a basic factor behind the uncertainties among spinners, according to market sources.

Cotton analyst, Naseem Usman, on the other hand said that depleted stocks left with ginners, anticipating of getting higher prices, striving to increase asking prices, which caused decline in daily-intake.

The following deals were reported to have changed hands: 200 bales of cotton from Multan (low quality) at Rs 3750, same figure from Vebari (low quality) sold at Rs 4000, 600 bales from Khanpur at Rs 5180, 400 bales from Bahawalpur at Rs 5400 and 500 bales from Alipur at Rs 5550, they said.

On global front, ICE cotton futures rose in light volume to their highest levels in more a week and a half on Friday, as a weaker dollar discouraged speculators from getting out of long positions amid an absence of commercial selling.

Cotton contracts for July settled up 0.31 cent on Friday, a 0.5 percent gain, at 66.84 cents per pound. It traded within a range of 66.11 cents and 66.87 cents a pound, the highest level for the front-month since May 6.

Total futures market volume dropped by 5,906 to 14,574 lots. Data showed total open interest gained 752 to 192,920 contracts in the previous session.