KARACHI: Cotton prices moved higher on Friday on the back of strong demand from spinners and some exporters and slow arrivals of phutti (seed cotton).

However, floor brokers believed phutti arrivals would normalise by the next week.

Strain in relations between Pakistan and India also continues to force spinners to build up their stocks with local cotton.

The world cotton markets gave mixed trend with New York cotton market closing further higher. But Chinese and Indian markets remained under pressure, brokers said.

Cotton prices in India have dipped on slow off-take from the textile industry which is presently under crisis, said Naseem Usman, chairman of the Karachi Cotton Brokers’ Forum.

He added that with higher phutti arrivals cotton prices were coming under more pressure in India. After opening the new cotton season at Rs41,000 per 356 kilograms, the price has slipped to Rs48,000 to Rs49,000.

The Karachi Cotton Association raised its spot rate by Rs50 to Rs5,975 per maund (around 37kg).

Major deals on the ready counter were: 1000 bales from Sanghar (Rs5,800 to Rs5,850), 1,000 bales Shahdadpur (Rs5,800 to Rs5,965), 1,600 bales Rohri (Rs6,150 to Rs6,200), 5,000 bales Khairpur (Rs6,175 to Rs6,200), 1,600 bales Saleh Pat (Rs6,200), 2,000 bales Lodhran (Rs6,195 to Rs6,250), 1,200 bales Burewala (Rs6,200), 1,600 bales Layyah (Rs6,200 to Rs62,50), 1,400 bales Rahimyar Khan (Rs6,200 to Rs6,250), 1,000 bales Hasilpur (Rs6,200 to Rs6,250), 23,00 bales Haroonabad (Rs6,200 to Rs6,250), 16,00 bales Khanewal (Rs6,200 to Rs6,250) and 600 bales Chichawatni (Rs6,200 to Rs6,250).

Published in Dawn, October 15th, 2016