KARACHI, Feb 13: Trading on the cotton market on Friday shrank to modest proportions as spinners and mills kept to the sidelines most of the time anticipating sympathetic fall in local prices in line with the world rates.

For the third session in a row, New York cotton futures were again traded lower as speculative traders continued to unload their long positions fearing fresh fall in prices, floor brokers said.

But as the ginners were not inclined to lower their asking prices and held on to their previous positions, physical activity fell to low ebb, they said.

“I don’t think local prices could follow the trend on the world markets,” said a cotton analyst adding the local prices are guided by the supply and demand factors and could stay firm in the coming weeks also.

While ginners held on to their unsold positions as far as fine lots are concerned, they lowered selling prices for medium types to clear the backlog.

As a result, inferior types were traded around Rs3,200 per maund from an average rate of Rs3,300 prior to a record fall in New York cotton futures, while fine varieties soared to Rs3,500 per maund amid active short-covering by the spinners.

Meanwhile, private sector exporters had up to Feb 7, registered export contracts totaling 0.311m bales, with the Trade Development Authority and physically shipped 0.265m bales during the same period to various countries.

New York cotton futures posted fresh fall of 0.80 and 0.52 cents per lb at 45.03 and 46.47 for both the maturing March and the ruling May contracts, respectively.

Local official spot rates on the other hand were held unchanged at Rs3,400 per maund but in the ready section most of the deals were done well below them.

Mill ready off-take was light totaling 5,000 bales, the following being some of the notable deals:

SINDH TYPE: 600 bales, Khipro at Rs3,225, 400 bales, each Shahdadpur and Sanghar at 3,250.

PUNJAB VARIETY: 2,000 bales, Choti at Rs3,400, 600 bales, Rajanpur at 3,200, 400 bales, Kehror Pakka at 3,300, 600 bales, Sadiqabad at 3,350.