Prices were stable on the cotton market on Friday as mills indulged in fresh buying to meet their urgent requirements, dealers said. The official spot rate was unchanged at Rs 5,600 dealers said. In the Punjab, prices of seed cotton showed no change at Rs 3100 and Rs 3400, they said. In the ready business, over 7000 bales of cotton changed hands between Rs 5200 and Rs 6000, they said.
Market sources said that profit-taking was seen by the ginners as they accepted deals by the spinners and mills only at the higher rates. The unsold stocks with the ginners were depleting as the next crop is still four-month away. In the meantime, the mills and spinners were trying to make deals with the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) to keep away from higher rates, dealers said. Cotton analyst, Naseem Usman said that the Indian cotton prices were firm due to short supply of cotton, particularly of fine type. Markets were soft in China and NY.
It was observed that market would remain slow in the days to come, other experts said. Reuters adds: Cotton futures settled down slightly lower on Thursday after disappointing US government data on weekly export sales. The data showed sales of upland cotton totalled 48,700 running bales for the week ending April 22, touching a marketing-year low for 2015/2016, down 54 percent from the previous week. The presence of China, which will begin auctioning its massive stockpile of the natural fibre starting next week, among the buyers from the US was "supportive" to the market, Brown added. The July cotton contract on ICE Futures US settled down 0.46 cent, or 0.72 percent, at 63.69 cents per lb. It traded within a range of 63.3 and 64.22 cents a lb.
Total futures market volume fell by 1,952 to 18,715 lots. Data showed total open interest fell 1,208 to 190,508 contracts in the previous session. The following deals reported: 400 bales of cotton from Rohri at Rs 5200, 1200 bales from Nawabshah at Rs 5300, 900 bales from Mehrabpur at Rs 5300, 2200 bales from Bahawalpur at Rs 5500, 700 bales from Dera Ghazi Khan at Rs 5700, 700 bales from Mohammadpur Dewan at Rs 5750, 400 bales from Bakhar at Rs 5750-5800, 400 bales from Yazman Mandi at Rs 5900 and 600 bales from Layyah at Rs 6000, dealers said.
===========================================================================
The KCA Official Spot Rate for Local Dealings in Pakistan Rupees
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOR BASE GRADE 3 STAPLE LENGTH 1-1/32"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
MICRONAIRE VALUE BETWEEN 3.8 TO 4.9 NCL
===========================================================================
Rate Ex-Gin Upcountry Spot Rate Spot Rate Difference
For Price Ex-Karachi Ex. KHI. As Ex-Karachi
on 28-04-2016
===========================================================================
37.324 kg 5,600 135 5,735 5,735 NIL
Equivalent
40 kgs 6,002 145 6,147 6,147 NIL
===========================================================================