KARACHI: The cotton market turned listless on Monday as ginners withdrew to the sidelines in the anticipation of higher prices for the commodity in coming days. Overall the underlying sentiment was positive and outlook bright.

Despite the fact that buyers were present in the trading ring, sellers stayed away in the hope that cotton prices would surge since China has announced to purchase around 4.7 million bales from world markets.

Locally, power looms are fully booked as demand for fabric is rising from the value-added textile sector. Demand for cotton yarn is also on the rise. This strongly means that textile spinning units will purchase more cotton.

Barring a few unofficial transactions late in the evening, no deals were reported to have materialised on the ready counter.

The Karachi Cotton Association (KCA) spot rates were also firm at weekend level of Rs8,800 per maund.

Published in Dawn, April 16th, 2019