Sluggish business was again witnessed on the cotton market on Saturday as mills and spinners did not take interest in fresh buying owing to slow demand throughout the world, dealers said. The official spot rate was unchanged at Rs 5,300, they said.
Prices of seedcotton in Sindh were at Rs 1800-2300 and in the Punjab at Rs 2200-2650, they said. In ready dealings around 2000 bales of cotton changed hands at Rs 5000-5700, they added. Some brokers said that leading buyers were conspicuous by their absence. Many traders were hoping that activity will improve in the coming days mainly because of lower rates. In the meantime, it looks very difficult for the ginners to cut down prices further, they added.
Furthermore, the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) issued its fortnightly phutti arrivals figure till 29 February at 14.04 million bales, which is 25 percent higher against the last year, they said. According to the Reuters, on Friday, the NY cotton futures ended lower for the third session in a row in the face of a stronger dollar and investor selling, and analysts said the weak tone should persist into next week.
Benchmark May cotton on ICE Futures US fell 1.44 cents or over 1.5 percent to conclude at 88.23 cents per lb, trading from 87.80 to 90.50 cents. For the week, cotton shed 2.13 percent. Volume traded on Friday was around 18,100 lots, preliminary Thomson Reuters data showed, down slightly from Thursday's tally of 18,504 lots.
The following deals were reported: 400 bales of cotton from Haroonabad sold at Rs 5000, 200 bales of cotton from Khanewal at the same rate, same figure from Bahawal Pur at Rs 5250, 400 bales from Sadiqabad at Rs 5400 and 600 bales from Mian Wali at Rs 5600-5700.
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The KCA Official Spot Rate for Local Dealings in Pak Rupees
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FOR BASE GRADE 3 STAPLE LENGTH 1-1/32"
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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 02.03.2012
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37.324 Kgs 5,300 130 5,430 5,430 NIL
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Equivalent
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40 Kgs 5,680 130 5,810 5,810 NIL
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