KARACHI, Sept 20: Cotton prices on Wednesday rose modestly followed by reports that growers were holding back larger part of their freshly picked phutti to sell it at higher rates.

Floor brokers said arrivals of phutti into the ginneries were on the higher side after post-rain picking notably in Sindh cotton belt, floor brokers said.

As a result, prices of phutti which soared to Rs1,400 per 40-kg followed by reports of damage to crop fell to Rs1,200 or slightly above, they said.

Meanwhile, prices of lint almost stabilised below Rs2,700 per maund and spinners covered their forward positions each session and lifted all the lots offered for sales, they added.

“Leading growers seem to have taken a technical breather in an apparent effort to secure crop-based rates for their phutti stocks,” some cotton analysts said.

They said future price outlook appears to be bullish although much will depend on the buying strategy of spinners and mills how they plan to keep price within their export parity levels, they added.

Already, falling New York cotton future prices are eroding their competitiveness on the world textile markets as their competitors are getting lint at lower prices as compared to them despite being operating in the cotton producing country, they said.

Next couple of weeks could be very crucial for the textile industry as they have to opt for local or foreign buying of lint, which ever is cheaper to maintain their competitive edge.

Official spot rates were revised upward by Rs25 per maund at Rs2,600 per maund, although in ready section some of the fine types were sold at a premium.

New York cotton futures on the other hand suffered sharp fall of 1.75 and 1.85 cents per lb at 49.36 and 51.63 cents for both the ruling October and the forward December contracts respectively.

Ready off-take was active amounting to 10,000 bales as under.

SINDH TYPE: 1,000 bales, Tando Adam at Rs2,575, 1,000 bales, Sultanabad at Rs2,540, 200 bales, Mirpurkhas at Rs2,525, 700 bales, Shahdadpur at Rs2,600 to Rs2,610, 1,000 bales, Sanghar at Rs2,570, 200 bales, Jhole at Rs2,600.