LAHORE: The local cotton market collapsed as the rate of cotton decreased by Rs 2000 per maund in the last two days.

Cotton Analyst Naseem Usman told that the rate of cotton in Sindh after decreasing is in between Rs 19,300 to Rs 19,400 per maund. The rate of cotton in Punjab is in between Rs 20,100 to Rs 21000 per maund. Naseem told that the reason behind collapse of market is decrease in the rate of dollar as well as decrease in the rate of cotton in international market by 6 to 7 cent per pound.

8400 bales of Tando Adam were sold at Rs 20400 to Rs 21150 per maund, 1400 bales of Sanghar were sold at Rs 20,600 to Rs 21100 per maund, 800 bales of Mir Pur Khas were sold at Rs 20,400 to Rs 20,800 per maund, 1800 bales of Shahdad Pur were sold at Rs 20,600 to Rs 21000 per maund, 400 bales of Shah Pur Chakar were sold at Rs 20,500 to Rs 20,600 per maund, 200 bales of Khadro were sold at Rs 20750 per maund, 400 bales of Hyderabad were sold at Rs 20,600 to Rs 21000 per maund, 200 bales of Khanewal and 200 bales of Burewala were sold at Rs 21500 per maund.

ICE cotton futures slid more than 4% to their lowest in about three months on Wednesday, extending a selloff driven by growing economic risks.

The most-active December contract ICE Futures fell 5.56 cents, or 4.9%, to 108.29 cents per lb at 01:58 pm ET.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday that the United States is rallying its allies against forced labor as it begins implementing an import ban on goods from China’s Xinjiang region, a major cotton producer.

Mounting concerns that interest rate hikes by major central banks to tame inflation run the risk of inducing a recession, have also seeped into the cotton market, analysts said.

“It seems like there has been an overall outflow of funds from the agricultural sector, particularly cotton,” said Valentin Olah, cotton risk management consultant at StoneX Group.

Key technical support levels, including the 100-day moving average, have also been breached and “if you are a speculator, you don’t want to be long on this market,” Olah added.

The Spot Rate remained unchanged at Rs 21000 per maund. The Polyester Fiber was available at Rs 325 per kg.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022