Prices showed modest rise on the cotton market on Thursday as fresh rains in Punjab caused stoppage of phutti arrivals, dealers said. Official spot rate was higher by Rs 50 to Rs 5850, they said. In the ready business about 8,000 bales of cotton changed hands between Rs 5825-6000, they said. The prices of seedcotton in Sindh were at Rs 2600-2650 and in the Punjab rates were unchanged at Rs 2600-2700, they added.
Market sources said that mills were active, making new deals to keep themselves away from future losses. Naseem Usman said that fresh rains in Punjab may push rates further higher in the coming days. Reduced sowing and other factors may not help in achieving the target of 15 million bales for the season, other sources said.
If rains prolonged, may hit the quality of cotton, so, the mills and spinners were trying to cover the near-term needs, they said. According to the Reuters, India's cotton exports are likely to be 12.7 million bales in the season that began on October 1, 2011, up about 10 percent from an earlier estimate, a senior government official said on Thursday.
But the country's Cotton Advisory Board (CAB) failed to issue a forecast for production and exports in the year starting October 1, 2012 because a drought has made assessing acreage planted difficult, Textile Commissioner A.B Joshi said. "We could not arrive at a conclusion on production estimate for the next season," Joshi told reporters after the CAB meeting.
Turkmenistan began its cotton-harvesting campaign amid great fanfare on Thursday, with the aim of increasing a crop that generates massive revenues for the Central Asian state. The Agriculture Ministry said that Turkmenistan, among the world's top seven cotton growers, was aiming for a slight increase in its 2012 crop. The country plans to harvest 1.109 million tonnes, compared with 1.1 million tonnes last year.
China, the world's top cotton buyer, has issued an additional 400,000 tonnes of cotton import quotas to textile mills to help them source more cheap international supplies, industry sources said on Thursday. Mills have been pushing the government to boost import quotas for supplies from abroad, where prices can be as much as 40 percent lower than domestically.
The new quota volume would bring total import quotas issued this year to about 2.8 million tonnes, including one million tonnes issued in May. According to the Reuters, the NY cotton prices jumped over two percent on Monday on technical buying after prices held above 73 cents per lb last week. Prices have now retraced much of the ground lost since August 10, when the US government warned of record inventory and waning demand in the year ahead.
Cotton has built a base above 72 cents per lb as the market continues to watch for potential disruption to supplies later in the year from India, the world's No 2 cotton producer, where planting has been hampered by weak monsoon rains. The benchmark December cotton contract on ICE Futures US jumped 2.08 percent to settle at 74.83 cents per lb.
The NY cotton prices rallied over three percent to three-month highs and flirted with bull territory as technical buy signals offset concerns about a record surplus and weak demand. The benchmark December cotton contract on ICE Futures US rose for a third day to settle at 77.3 cents per lb, up 3.3 percent. Gains accelerated after fiber prices breached a key technical resistance at the 100-day moving average at 77.07 cents per lb.
The NY cotton prices slipped off three-month highs on Wednesday as producer selling and indications of healthy crop planting in India ended fiber's brief flirtation with bull territory. Some investors also took profits after the government of India, the world's second-largest producer, said planting was progressing even after weak monsoon rains that some had feared would hamper crop development.
Prices fell as much as three percent in early trade to an intraday low of 74.9 cents per lb before recovering most of the ground in a late-stage recovery. The benchmark December cotton contract on ICE Futures US settled 0.42 percent lower at 76.97 cents, which was just shy of the day's high and helped the market cling to most of the seven percent gains notched up over the previous three sessions.
The following deals were reported: 2000 bales of cotton from Shahdadpur sold at Rs 5850, same figure from Sanghar at Rs 5825, 1000 bales of cotton from Mir Pur Khas at same rate, 600 bales of cotton from Hyderabad at Rs 5825-5850, 1400 bales of cotton from Tando Adam at Rs 6000, 800 bales of cotton from Burewala at Rs 5900, 200 bales of cotton from Chichawatni at Rs 5850 and 400 bales of cotton from Jhang (credit) at Rs 5825.
===========================================================================
The KCA Official Spot Rate for Local Dealings in Pak Rupees
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOR BASE GRADE 3 STAPLE LENGTH 1-1/32"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
MICRONAIRE VALUE BETWEEN 3.8 TO 4.9 NCL
===========================================================================
Rate Ex-Gin Upcountry Spot Rate Spot Rate Difference
For Price Ex-Karachi Ex. KHI. As Ex-Karachi
on 18.08.2012
===========================================================================
37.324 Kgs 5,850 130 6,005 5,955 +50
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Equivalent
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
40 Kgs 6,269 130 6,424 6,371 +53
===========================================================================
Comments
Comments are closed.