Steady trend on cotton market on active mills' demand

Firmness prevailed on the cotton market on Saturday as no fall was seen in the mills demand in process of trading, dealers said. The Karachi Cotton Association (KCA) official spot rate was unmoved at Rs 8,600, they said. In Sindh prices of new crop phutti were at Rs 3650-3700 and old crop phutti in Sindh and Punjab, the rates were of low type at Rs 2500 and that of superior type at Rs 3000, they said.
In ready business, approximately, 4000 bales of cotton changed hands between Rs 8400-9000, they said. There was no major change in the market as mills were making deals in anticipation of increase in the rates, Naseem Usman said. The prices are steadier and this is good for the ginners, he said. It looks that the mills do not want to wait for the decline in the rates despite the fact that new crop have started reaching the market and there are expectations tat the rates may show soft trend due to likely rise in the production, other experts said.
Other analysts said that volatile NY cotton futures causing confusion among the cotton traders and may keep the buyers on the sidelines in the near future. On Friday the US cotton futures finished higher, recovering from a three-week low on short-covering stemming from worries about one of the worst droughts in the history of growing areas of Texas.
The market shrugged off a two-day selling spree sparked by fears of a Greek default in the euro zone as players were wary of going home short in cotton with the weekend coming up. The key December cotton contract on ICE Futures US rose 3.59 cents to finish at $1.2377 per lb, ranging from $1.1787 to $1.2462. On Thursday, the contract closed at $1.2018 in the lowest finish for the third position cotton contract in nearly three weeks. On the week, the market was down 7.39 percent. Total volume traded Thursday reached nearly 11,100 lots at 2:50 pm EDT (1850 GMT), some 40 percent below the 30-day norm, Thomson Reuters preliminary data showed.
The following deals were reported: 1000 bales of cotton (mill to mill) to Rs 9000, 200 bales (mill to mill) at Rs 8750, 500 bales from Bahawal Pur at Rs 8450, 200 bales from Lodhran at Rs 8700, 200 bales from Faqir Wali at Rs 8400, 200 bales from Dera Ghazi Khan at Rs 8400, 1200 bales from Haroonabad at Rs 8500 and 100 bales from Haroonabad at Rs 8600.

===========================================================================

The KCA Official Spot Rate for Local Dealings in Pak 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 17.06.2011

===========================================================================

37.324 Kgs       8,600       120       8,720        8,720               NIL

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Equivalent

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

40 Kgs           9,217       120       9,337        9,337               NIL

===========================================================================