Renewed spinners' and mills demand helped the volume of business to increase on the cotton market on Monday in the process of trading activity, dealers said. As a result of rising demand and short supply of quality cotton, the official spot rate moved up by Rs 200 to Rs 7500, they added. In both Sindh and Punjab, seed cotton prices were at Rs 2800-3100, they said. In the ready session, prices also gained momentum as over 4000 bales of cotton changed hands between Rs 7500-7925, they said.
According to the market sources, trade war between China and US caused rising tension among the business circles. It is expected that the rates may go up in the coming days, they said. Irrigation water shortage and inferior quality cotton seed are main hurdles in achieving the cotton target, experts observed. Cotton analyst, Naseem Usman said that it is surprising to note that local buyers were not satisfied with the crop size, they may need to import more cotton from other countries.
India has signed contracts to export 200,000 bales of cotton to China in the past one week, the head of a trade body said, after Beijing last week sought to impose tariffs on cotton supplies from the United States. India is expected to export 7 million bales (each of 170 kg) of the fibre in 2017/18 against 5.8 million bales shipped in the 2016/17 season, Atul Ganatra, president of the Cotton Association of India said.
In the international markets cotton prices mixed during the session, they said. The following deals were reported: 1400 bales of cotton from Mirpur Mathilo at Rs 7500/7800, 1200 bales from Ghotki at Rs 7800, 400 bales from Liaquatpur at Rs 7550 and 933 bales from Khanpur at Rs 7925, 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 1-1/16"
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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 07.04.2018
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37.324 kg 7,500 145 7,645 7,645 + 200/-
Equivalent
40 kgs 8,038 155 8,193 7,978 + 215/-
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