Business activity was down on the cotton market on Saturday as ginners refrained from fresh selling of fine variety, dealers said. The official spot rate was unchanged at Rs 8,600, they added. In the ready session, around 3000 bales of cotton changed hands between Rs 7900-8850, they said. Prices of seed cotton in Sindh were at Rs 3000-3500, in Punjab seed cotton prices at Rs 3000-3600 and in Balochistan prices were at Rs 3200-3500, they said.
Some brokers said that continued increase in the rates of essentials, keeping business circle and nation under the shadow of fears, presently not a single person is definite about direction of price-line.
Commenting on the latest development, cotton analyst Naseem Usman said that mills failed to make deals in a big way because the ginners were not interested in finalising deals at the present levels. It is expected that prices to go up further in the coming days, they said.
Adds Reuters: ICE cotton futures rose more than 2 percent on Friday as a report from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) showed a drop in acreage for the natural fibre in 2019. The front-month cotton contract on ICE Futures US, rose 1.78 cent, or 2.35 percent, at 77.65 cents per lb. as of 1:29 p.m. ET (1729 GMT).
Total futures market volume fell by 1,668 to 28,605 lots. Data showed total open interest gained 2,011 to 228,436 contracts in the previous session. The following deals reported: 600 bales of cotton from Dherki at Rs 8850, 1200 bales from Rahim Yar Khan at Rs 8800, 400 bales from Rajanpur at Rs 8750, 370 bales from Chichawatni at Rs 8150, 400 bales from Faqeerwali at Rs 7900, 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"
                                    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 29-03-2019
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37.324 kg          8,600      160         8,760        8,760            Nil
Equivalent
40 kgs             9,217      171         9,388        9,388            Nil
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