Prices were moving to touch the record level on the back of strong buying by mills and spinners, dealers said on the cotton market on Thursday.
The official spot rate was higher by Rs 50 to Rs 5,500 dealers said. In the Punjab, seed cotton prices were at Rs 3000 and Rs 3200, they said.
In the ready business, around 8000 bales of cotton changed hands between Rs 4750 and Rs 5850, they said.
According to the market sources, ginners raised the asking prices as they have little stock of lint cotton.
At the same time, the mills and spinners were ready to oblige them, willingly make deals to keep away from future high rates, they said.
Cotton analyst, Naseem Usman said that continued rise in the prices of cotton in the globe markets propelled to buy as much as they want, but they made limited purchase.
Reuters adds: Cotton futures rose on Wednesday to the highest in 2016 on a combination of index buying and an overall uptick in commodities.
"This is a transition from a speculative sector of the (cotton) market going from short to long and they are very aggressive," said Jobe Moss, a broker with MCM Inc in Lubbock, Texas. China cotton futures on the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange were up 4 percent, the biggest gain since November, to 12,740 yuan per tonne, the highest in over 10 months.
The July cotton contract on ICE Futures US settled up 1.02 cent, or 1.62 percent, at 64.09 cents per lb, after trading as high as 64.74 cents, its highest since December 30
Total futures market volume rose by 10,934 to 52,974 lots. Data showed total open interest fell 353 to 193,438 contracts in the previous session.
The following deals reported: 400 bales of cotton from Mehrabpur at Rs 5100, 400 bales from Sadiqabad at Rs 4750, 764 bales from Layyah at Rs 5000-5100, 1716 bales from Mianwali at Rs 5200-5800, 500 bales from Tonsa Sharif at Rs 5300, 600 bales from Rajanpur at Rs 5400, 800 bales from Yazman Mandi at Rs 5500, 2000 bales from Khanpur at Rs 5600, 1000 bales from Sadiqabad at Rs 5800 and 200 bales from Dera Ghazi Khan at Rs 5850, 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 1-1/32"
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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 20-04-2016
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37.324 kg 5,500 135 5,635 5,585 + 50
Equivalent
40 kgs 5,894 145 6,039 5,986 + 53
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