Mills play active role in modest activity on cotton market

Prices maintained firm trend on the cotton market on Wednesday as the mills finalised new deals at present levels to cover their immediate needs, dealers said. The official spot rate was unchanged at Rs 8,800, they added. In the ready session, over 4,000 bales of cotton finalised between Rs 8300-9000, they said. Prices of seed cotton in Sindh were at Rs 3000-3500 and in Punjab seed cotton prices were at Rs 3000-3600, they said.
According to the market sources, prices may go up slightly ahead of the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) report. Cotton analyst, Naseem Usman said that cotton market rebound as on Tuesday the ginners were selling cotton in a big way, but today, they were on the sidelines to observe the fresh developments.
The ginners have little stock of unsold cotton, so that they were keen to make profit as much as they can, the brokers said. Adds Reuters: ICE cotton futures rose 2% on Tuesday on optimism that US cotton would see robust demand from China in the backdrop of progressing trade talks with the United States.
The most-active cotton contract on ICE Futures US, July settled up 1.45 cent, or 1.90 percent, at 77.94 cents per lb, its biggest one-day percentage gain since mid-March. Total futures market volume fell by 15,811 to 43,401 lots. Data showed total open interest fell 1,766 to 214,899 contracts in the previous session.
Following deals reported: 400 bales of cotton from Liaquatpur at Rs 9000, 1960 bales from Rajanpur at Rs 8950, 1000 bales from Mian Chunnu at Rs 8500 and same figure from Alipur at Rs 8300, they said.

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The KCA Official Spot Rate for Local Dealings in Pakistan Rupees

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FOR BASE GRADE 3 STAPLE LENGTH 1-1/16"

                                    MICRONAIRE VALUE BETWEEN 3.8 TO 4.9 NCL

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Rate              Ex-Gin   Upcountry   Spot Rate    Spot Rate    Difference

                    For      Price     Ex-Karachi  Ex. KHI. As   Ex-Karachi

                                                  on 16-04-2019

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37.324 kg         8,800       160        8,960         8,960            NIL

Equivalent

40 kgs            9,431       171        9,602         9,602            NIL

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