Mills and spinners kept on the sidelines as ginners were not ready to oblige them in anticipation of rise in prices in times to come. Hence, limited number of deals were finalized on the cotton market on Monday. The official spot rate also remained unchanged at Rs 5300, dealers said.

In the ready session, over 2,000 bales of cotton changed hands between Rs 4300 and Rs 5500 (conditional). The prices of seed cotton in Sindh were at Rs 1900 and Rs 2500 and in Punjab rates were at Rs 2200 and Rs 3000.

Cotton analyst, Naseem Usman attributed the fall in volume of business to cautious buying by spinners as selling rates were mostly based on quality of lint. In fact, the buyers were mulling that the sellers may bring down rates, after the Pakistan Cotton Ginners' Association (PCGA) report, which is showing cotton production went up by 11 percent to 14.8 million bales.

The following deals were reported: 400 bales of cotton from Moro sold at Rs 5500, 227 bales from Kandiaro sold at the same rate, 540 bales from Rohri at Rs 4300 and 1000 bales from Bahawalpur at Rs 5000.

The ginners were holding lint cotton because they are not in a hurry to dispose off unsold stock due to better-than-expected profit in the near future.