In the absence of fresh leads, wait-and-see mood was adopted by both buyers and sellers on the cotton market on Friday during the slow business, dealers said. Karachi Cotton Association (KCA) official spot rate was steady at Rs 12,500, they said.
In Sindh and Punjab phutti price of low type was at Rs 4000 and superior type also unchanged at Rs 5000, they said. In ready business nearly 1300 bales changed hands between Rs 12000-12300, they added. Insipid business was seen as most of the participants were sidelined awaiting fall in the prices. One factor appeared that low phutti stock with the ginners did not have any bullish impact on the prices because the rates are moving with slight changes, they added.
But despite this factor the ginners are not worried about the prices, they said adding that these are the main factors and causing fall in daily-intake. Before the new arrivals, the mills were still needed sizeable quantity to meet the export consignments, they said.
On Thursday the US cotton futures ended mixed, with the front-month May contract recoiling from an intraday limit-up peak, as index fund rollovers heated up and traders readied for a government crop report on Friday. The key May cotton contract on ICE Futures US peaked at its seven-cent limit at $2.1506 per lb, before selling off in the last hour of business to end with a 0.16-cent gain, at $2.0822.
Market players attributed the late-session volatility in the May contract to increased index fund rollover business, as funds rolled out of May into July, with first notice day for May cotton just two weeks away. After the close, ICE Futures The new-crop December cotton contract tumbled 4.03 cents to end at $1.3794. Trading volumes were brisk, with more than 43,600 lots traded by 3:30 pm EDT 1930 GMT, more than 80 percent above the 30-day norm, Thomson Reuters preliminary data showed.
Open interest in cotton futures continued to creep higher, rising 3,469 lots to an eight-week high at 199,158 lots as of April 6, according to ICE Futures US figures. The following deals were reported: nearly 500 bales of cotton from Jahanian were sold at Rs 12000 and 800 bales of cotton from Rahim Yar Khan at Rs 12300, they added.