No business activity was seen on the cotton market on Saturday as all the major commercial centres were closed in Karachi, on strike call given by traders against extortion, brokers said on phone. No official spot rate was issued by the Karachi Cotton Association (KCA), they said.
Prices of seedcotton in Sindh were at Rs 1700-2300 and in the Punjab at Rs 1800-2600, they said. According to the reports, to improve law and order situation in Sindh particularly in Karachi, Interior Minister Rehman A Malik said that the government has decided to take strict action against the criminals to control extortion in port city.
In ready dealings, daily-intake by the mills and spinners came down as 3000 bales of cotton changed hands at Rs 4400-5500, they added. When Naseem Usman was contacted on phone, he said that some deals were reported on the Punjab side, and no major change was seen in the prices and trading activity. He also said that if mills show interest in the fresh buying, then prices may keep stable trend, otherwise, rates would come down in the coming days.
On Friday the US cotton futures settled slightly firmer on late trade and consumer buying in a market that remained fundamentally bearish, analysts said. The benchmark May contract on ICE Futures US rose 0.14 cent to finish at 87.48 cents per lb, dealing from 87 to 88.17 cents. The 117 point range was smaller than the 119 point band seen on Thursday's 87.07 to 88.26 cents range.
For the week, the market was down 1.5 percent. Volume traded came to over 13,000 lots, over 50 percent under the 30-day norm, Thomson Reuters data showed. The following deals were reported: 600 bales of cotton from Rahim Yar Khan sold at Rs 5500, 400 bales from Fort Abbas at Rs 5300, same figure from Haroonabad at Rs 5050, same number from Chichawatni at Rs 4800 and equal number from Mian Chunnu at Rs 4400.