KARACHI, Aug 23: Trading on the cotton market on Wednesday remained insipid as price ideas of sellers and buyers failed to find a meeting ground as both are unclear about the future crop outlook.

The persistent rains in the major cotton growing areas of the lower and central Sindh and reports of damage to standing crop in some of them have changed the production perceptions, floor brokers said.

They said falling daily mill off-take reflected that spinners and mills appeared to be least worried about the crop damage reports and staying on the sidelines in an effort to keep prices within the current levels.

But steep increase in New York cotton futures after several lean sessions reflected that the local crop damage reports had already hit the foreign markets causing price flare-up.

“From now onward, the foreign lint may be more expensive and spinners have to redefine their future buying strategy,” says a leading spinner, adding “local prices are sure to react in tandem with those of the world”.

Indications are that spinners and mills are expected to resume their normal market operations after phutti arrivals into the ginneries get normal, he added.

According to market sources picking operations of phutti in some of the lower Sindh cotton belt had already been resumed as there was no fresh rain but arrivals were too small to influence prices bearishly.

Meanwhile, some of the private sector exporters have registered 2,430 bales of new crop lint with the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) against their forward sales up to Aug 15, and hope to meet physical shipment deadlines well in time.

Official spot rates were firmly held at the overnight level in the absence of feed back from the ready section and were quoted unchanged at Rs2,450 per maund.

New York cotton futures rose by 1.14 and 1.28 cents per lb at 53.25 and 55.36 cents for both the ruling October and the distant December settlements respectively.

Ready off-take totalled about 1,200 bales, both from the Sindh and central Punjab cotton belt and were done on average rate of Rs2,525 and Rs2,600 per maund respectively.