Moderate trading session seen at cotton market with steady cotton prices

Trading session remained moderate at the cotton market on Tuesday owing to short supply of quality cotton. The Karachi Cotton Association’s (KCA) spot rate remained intact at Rs 6,800 per maund. While ginners kept asking for higher prices due to limited stocks, spinners were reluctant to pay more, brokers said.

According to a senior trader, Ghulam Rabbani, the volumes remained small with growing demand for better grades of lint on slightly higher price by the mills and spinning sector during the trading session.

The spinning sector remained eager for fine quality on the back of its growing demand on the domestic and international front. While, Ginners withholding better grades of lint were steadfast not to bow down before the buyers’ offers, as they were confident for the price that would not go below spot rate.

Spinners were already facing difficulty in exports due to higher cotton yarn prices against their competitors on the world market and were entirely dependent on local sales, they added.

Cotton analyst Naseem Usman said that it is almost off-season because phutti (seed cotton) in Sindh has completely exhausted whereas slow and limited arrivals continue in Punjab which would not have much impact on cotton production.

The ginners’ body met on Tuesday with high officials of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) over tax issues, but the meeting failed to produce any results and ginners were now seeking government intervention, brokers said.

Major deals that changed hands on the ready counter were: 800 bales from Rohri at Rs5,975, 800 bales from Fort Abbas at Rs6,800, 400 bales from Dahranwala at Rs6,800, 400 bales from Muhammadpur Dewan at Rs6,825 and 600 bales from Faqirwali at Rs6,800 to Rs7,000.

The ginners of Punjab offered quality cotton to the buyers above Rs 6,750 per maund while ginners of Sindh offered raw lint to the buyers around Rs 5,975 per maund depending on trash level.

On global front, world cotton markets gave mixed trend, with New York cotton recovering and China and Indian markets closing easy.