Listless trading on cotton market

Listless conditions prevailed on the cotton on Tuesday where buyers were conspicuous by their absence. The undertone remained easy and outlook uncertain.

Floor brokers said that a crisis-ridden textile industry was least interested in building up position. The high cost of inputs compared to regional countries was badly affecting their exports, they added.

Already, most spinners have reduced their production shifts because weak demand for cotton yarn from China, which once used to be the biggest buyer of Pakistani yarn, has crippled their production.

Though the cotton crop is short by almost 5 million bales over the last year, the industry is not rushing to book huge stocks.

On the other hands, ginners with unsold stocks of around one million bales were also worried as their holding power was exhausting, brokers said. There was urgent need that the government should take corrective measures to save the textile industry, observed Naseem Usman, a leading cotton broker.

Consequently, hardly any activity was evident and barring a couple of small lot deals, trading remained lacklustre.

The Karachi Cotton Association (KCA) spot rates were unchanged at overnight level. Only one deal of 1,400 bales done at Rs5,550 per maund was reported on the ready counter.

[Source:- dawn]