KARACHI, Jan 19: Cotton prices on Monday inched further higher as spinners and mills resumed covering purchases against their forward sales of cotton yarn and textiles.

Well over 20,000 bales changed hands, mostly at Rs3,400 per maund as ginners were inclined to sell their fine lots with their asking prices, while stray lots of medium quality lint were sold at an average rate of Rs3,300.

Floor brokers said ginners now appear to be in a commanding position as far as selling prices of fine lint are concerned as market talk of a lower crop kept them in a bullish mood.

Although they still hold an unsold stock of about two million bales, involving about Rs25 billion, there is no panic among any of them on the perception that prices are steadily inching up to early season level of Rs4,000 per maund.

Market sources said both the sellers and the buyers are eyeing the final crop figure, which in their opinion could be the deciding factor as far as future price outlook is concerned.

Meanwhile, reports from the textile sector, say that the industry is heading for a major crisis as stocks of finished goods are piling partly owing to lower prices on the world market and partly to slack new year demand.

Barring some leading spinners and mills, having secured foreign markets in their fold, the textile industry as a whole appears to be in a crisis and industry sources said some more units may close down if export situation did not get normal during the next few weeks.

Official spot rates were, however, firmly held unchanged at the weekend level of Rs3,300 but in the ready section, bulk of the business was done well above them.

The following are some of the notable deals on late on Monday evening:

SINDH TYPE: 600 bales, Khipro at Rs3,140 to Rs3,200, 600 bales, Pithoro at Rs3,200, 400 bales, Mirpurkhas at Rs3,175.

PUNJAB VARIETY: 5,000 bales, Rahimyar Khan at Rs3,200 to Rs3,400, 2,000 bales, Sadiqabad at Rs3,250 to Rs3,400, 600 bales, Mian Channu, 200 bales, Burewala 1,200 bales, Jalalpur and 1,000 bales, Mohammadpur Dewan, at Rs3,400, 1,000 bales, Sardar Lund, 600 bales, Kabirwala at Rs3,350, 400 bales, Hasilpur and 200 bales, Khror Pacca at Rs3,250, 200 bales, Mamu Kanjan at Rs3,000 and 400 bales, Haroonabad at Rs3,150.