KARACHI, Oct 29: Cotton market on Wednesday showed firm trend as prices recovered sharply from the recent lows on strong mill buying amid fears of fresh increase if ginners opted for the planned shutdown against the massive load -shedding from Oct 30, cotton analysts said.

The high ups of the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA), the apex body of the cotton traders, will meet in Multan on Thursday and will decide its future course of action as the load-shedding has virtually halted their normal ginning operations for the last about a month, market sources said.

Some of the deals were done as higher as Rs190 per maund at Rs3,090 per maund and an average selling rate being Rs3,000 as compared to previous Rs2,900, they said.

Owing to plunge in the international commodity markets, lint prices during the last week had fallen to Rs2,400 per maund but reports of TCP intervention seems to have halted panic selling by the ginners.

The interesting feature was that local prices did not follow the trend on the New York cotton market, which came in for renewed selling and ended lower by 0.43 and 0.34 cents per lb for both the ruling December and the forward March contracts at 46.67 and 50.61, respectively.

Floor brokers said the TCP may or may not resume procurement operations to support the market after a couple of years, but the official thinking did send a message in the right quarters.

The local prices, they said, are expected to be guided by the supply and demand factors and indications are that the worst may be over for the growers as phutti prices had declined from Rs2,000 per 40 kg to Rs1,300 late last week.Official spot rates were quoted higher by Rs50 at Rs2,950 per maund but in the ready section most of the deals were done well above them.

The following are some of the notable deals reported in the ready section on Wednesday;

SINDH TYPE: 1,000 bales, each Shahdadpur, Sanghar and Nawabshah at Rs3,000, 2,000 and 1,000, Khairpur and Sarhari at 2,900 to 3,000.

PUNJAB VARIETY: 200 bales, each Kabirwala and Khanewal at Rs3,090, 200 bales, Shah Jamal at 3,050, 3,000 bales, Janpur, 1,000 bales Ahmedpur, 1,000 bales, Bahawalpur,1,000 bales, Hasilpur, 1,400 bales, D.G. Khan at Rs3,000, 400 bales, each Shadon Lund, Sadiqabad, Fazal Pur, Chichawatni, Burewala and Chiniot at 3,000 and 1,000 bales, each, Rajanpur and Haroonabad at Rs3,000 to 3,075 and 3,050, respectively.