KARACHI, May 14: After several lean sessions during the last fortnight, the cotton market witnessed active trading on Wednesday as both ginners and spinners resumed normal business.

The notable feature was that a forward deal of 600 bales -- 200 bales each from new crop from a central Punjab ginnery -- was finalised at Rs3,700, Rs3,800 and Rs3,900 per maund.

Ginners tried to clear their backlog of unsold stocks, notably inferior lots at the current higher levels, the spinners appeared to be in mopping operations mood to grab the floating stocks.

As a result, there was a wide difference in the selling prices depending on the quality of lint in trade. While the fine lots were sold as higher as Rs3,600 per maund, inferior lots were available between Rs3,275 and Rs3,300.

Floor brokers said ginners may have an unsold stock of around 0.2m bales and after having lost all hopes of an imminent price flare-up caused by a short crop, most of them decided to clear the backlog at the spinners’ prices.

The next couple of sessions may witness an active trading also as ginners seem to be in no mood to hold long positions and will try to clear their stock before the arrival of the new crop in late July or early August from the lower Sindh cotton belt, they added.

Market sources said mills stock position was pretty comfortable owing to larger imports and they may not need more supplies from foreign sources but would continue lifting local stuff.

New York cotton futures were in consolidation phase and that was perhaps why both the contracts were marked down by 0.91 and 0.89 cents at 70.90 and 76.52 cents per lb for both the ruling July and forward October settlements, respectively.

The local prices were firmly held at the overnight level of Rs3,400 per maund.

Ready off-take was on the higher side totalling 20,000 bales, the following being some of the notable deals: 1,100 bales, Sadiqabad at Rs3,450, 600 bales, Dewan Muhammad Pur at Rs3,600, 1,000 bales, Khanewal at Rs3,500, 1,400 bales, Mailsi at Rs3,450 to Rs3,575, 560 bales, Arifwala at Rs3,500, 2,952 bales, Mirpurkhas at Rs3,275 to Rs3,300 and 4,000 bales, other stations at Rs3,250 to Rs3,350.