KARACHI, Feb 10: Trading activity on the cotton market on Tuesday was maintained on the higher side as spinners and mills were not inclined to take even a technical breather amid fears of fresh increase in prices.

An idea of the strong mill buying may well be had from the fact that some leading spinners were out to grab the floating stock of fine lots irrespective of the increase in prices, floor brokers said.

A big deal of 7,000 bales of contamination-free lot from a Rahimyar Khan ginneries changed hands at Rs3,500 per maund signalling that the a cartel of spinners having an enormous funding facility was not inclined to sit on the sidelines, they added.

Unlike the previous session, most of the deals reported in the ready section for an average quality of lint were also finalised at a uniform rate of Rs3,400 per maund as compared to Rs3,300 a day earlier.

Market sources said the current price war between the leading spinners and mills had push their weaker links to the sidelines as they were not in a position to procure lint at higher rates in the absence of export orders.

“The talk of closure of mills across the country may have some other reasons as well, but the chief factor appears to be higher local prices in the face of a short crop,” they added.

Although New York futures for the last two sessions were stable around 50 cents per lb which is still a bit expensive when overhead charges including freight added to it, they maintained.

New York cotton futures on the other hand posted fresh modest rise of 0.12 and 0.18 cents at 49.98 and 50.61 cents per lb for both the maturing March and the ruling May contracts respectively.

Official spot rates were again held unchanged at the last level of Rs3,400 per maund and most of the deals in the ready section were done around this rate.

The following notable deals were reported late Tuesday evening in the ready section:

SINDH TYPE: 600 bales, Rohri at Rs3,300.

PUNJAB VARIETY: 1,000 each Shujabad and Mian Channu, 600 bales, Jehania, 400 bales, each Ghaziabad, D.G. Khan, Jalalabad at Rs3,400, 400 bales, Haroonabad at Rs3,375, 800 bales, Rahimyar Khan at Rs3,450 and 800 bales, Rajanpur at Rs3,300.