Modest activity was witnessed on the cotton market on Saturday owing to lack of fresh leads, dealers said. The official spot rate was unchanged at Rs9100, they added. In the ready session, about 2000 bales of cotton changed hands between Rs8700-9200, they said.

Rate of seed cotton per 40kg in Sindh low quality was at Rs2800, while the best quality was at Rs4200, and in the Punjab prices were at Rs3000 while the fine type was at Rs4600, they said.

In Sindh, Binola prices per maund were at Rs1400-1800, in Punjab rates were at Rs1650-1800, they said and the rate of polyester fibre was at Rs181 per kg, they added. According to the market sources, some needy mills showed interest in fresh buying of fine cotton. It came under observation that the ginners were also on the sidelines in expectations of better profit in the near future, they said.

Cotton analyst, Naseem Usman said that the government must take necessary measures to improve variety of cotton and production, he said. Adds Reuters: ICE cotton futures slipped on Friday, en route for their worst week in four months, as increased aversion to risk in financial markets spilled into commodities that overshadowed a strong weekly export sales report.

Cotton contracts for March fell 0.55 cent, or 0.79%, to 69.48 cents per lb by 1:16 p.m. EST (1816 GMT), trading within a range of 69.35 and 70.25 cents per lb. Total futures market volume fell by 13,437 to 20,357 lots. Data showed total open interest fell 1,043 to 259,961 contracts in the previous session.

The following deals reported: 600 bales from Rahim Yar Khan at Rs9200, 400 bales from Alipur at Rs9100, 600 bales from Tunsa Shareef at Rs8700 and 400 bales from Fazilpur at Rs8700, 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  24-01-2020
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37.324 kg         9,100       160         9,260        9,260            NIL
Equivalent
40 kgs            9,752       171         9,923        9,923            NIL
===========================================================================