Cotton Market Rates Firm Up On Sustained Demand

Not much improvement was seen in the trading activity on Saturday as the sellers preferred to be on the sidelines mainly because of shortage of crop, dealers said. The official spot rate was unchanged at Rs 5300, dealers said. So, in the ready session, around 3,000 bales of cotton changed hands between Rs 5200 and Rs 5500 (conditional), they said.
The prices of seed cotton in Sindh were at Rs 1900 and Rs 2500 and in Punjab rates were at Rs 2200 and Rs 3000, they said. Leading analysts said that some improvement in demand the overnight market and tight supply of lint cotton helped the rates to go up in the coming days.
The ginners have very little stock of unsold quality lint, most of them were trying to avoid fresh in anticipation of better rates in time to come, cotton analyst, Naseem Usman said. He also said that the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) fortnightly arrivals figure till April 15, stood at around 14.86 bales of cotton.
Reuters adds: Cotton futures dropped for the fourth straight session on Friday, to their lowest in more than two weeks, as persisting weak demand sent prices below a key technical level, sparking selling.
The most active July cotton contract fell 1.29 cents, or 2 percent, to settle at 63.29 cents a lb, after dropping as low as 63.26 cents a lb, the lowest since April 2. That was largest single-session loss since January 20. Second-month cotton finished the week down 3.2 percent, its sharpest weekly decline in five months. The front-month May cotton fell 0.72 cent, or 1.1 percent, to settle at 63.29 cents a lb.
The following deals reported: 400 bales from Ghotki at Rs 5250, 376 bales from Ahmedpur sold at Rs 5200, 400 bales from Rahim Yar Khan at Rs 5400, 200 bales from Uch Sharif at the same rate, 224 bales from Dera Ghazi Khan at Rs 5450, 350 bales from Bahawalpur at Rs 5500 and 600 bales from Burewala at the same rate, they said.