Rising demand pushes cotton prices up

Fresh buying of fine quality pushed rates higher on the cotton market on Thursday, dealers said. The official spot rate moved up by Rs 100 to Rs 8,700, they added. In the ready session, around 6000 bales of cotton changed hands between Rs 7975-8900, they said. Prices of seed cotton in Sindh were at Rs 3000-3500 and in Punjab seed cotton prices were at Rs 3000-3600, they said.
Some brokers said that declining trend in unsold cotton stock and unprecedented rise in dollar's value, propelled mills and spinners to make fresh buying of cotton.
Cotton analyst, Naseem Usman said that prices may rise further in the coming days, the shortage of best quality cotton seen.
Rise in all essentials, particularly surging oil prices keeping people under pressure, he said and adding that traders were also trying to keep away from future losses.
Reuters adds: ICE cotton futures fell on Wednesday as investors rolled their positions forward from the front month contract.
The front-month cotton contract on ICE Futures US, settled down 0.22 cent, or 0.28 percent, at 77.05 cents per lb.
Total futures market volume fell by 3,824 to 31,342 lots. Data showed total open interest gained 2,598 to 230,528 contracts in the previous session.
The following deals reported: 1430 bales of cotton from AKRI at Rs 8100, 3600 bales from Sadiqabad at Rs 8900, 1000 bales from Lodhran at Rs 8300, 300 bales from Yazman Mandi at Rs 8250 and 400 bales from Faqeerwali at Rs 7975, they said.

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

The KCA Official Spot Rate for Local Dealings in Pakistan Rupees

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

FOR BASE GRADE 3 STAPLE LENGTH 1-1/16"

                                    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 03-04-2019

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

37.324 kg         8,700       160         8,860        8,760        + 100/-

Equivalent

40 kgs            9,324       171         9,495        9,388        + 107/-

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