With spinners and mills showing fresh buying interest of lint cotton helped to keep the rates stable in the cotton market while the official spot rate also remained unchanged at Rs 5,300, dealers said.

In Sindh, seed cotton prices were at Rs 2200-2400, and in Punjab prices were at Rs 2400 and Rs 2900.

In the ready business, nearly 5000 bales finalized between Rs 4600-5500.

According to cotton analyst, Naseem Usman, there is shortage of lint cotton and this factor is helping the rates to keep present levels. To meet the local demand, the spinners have imported approximately 3.5 million bales as they have only 500,000 to 600,000 bales of cotton, which is not enough to meet requirements.

The following deals were finalized as per dealers: 800 bales of cotton from Toba Tek Singh at Rs 4600, 200 bales from Bahawal Nagar at Rs 5200, same figure from Chistian at the same prices, 1700 bales from Fazilpur at Rs 5400, 1400 bales from Rahim Yar Khan at Rs 5400-5500 and 400 bales from Rahanpur at Rs 5500.