KARACHI: Buying interest withered away on the cotton market on Thursday after spinners withdrew to sidelines.

Floor brokers said that global factors coupled with domestic issues confronting the textile industry were keeping activity slow on the cotton market. Besides, slow arrivals of phutti (seed cotton) from cotton fields into ginneries are also restricting activity.

As the current cotton season was about to come to an end, the trade volume was also slowing down, they added.

Moreover, short supply of quality cotton and higher price demand were inhibiting finalisation of transactions between buyers and sellers.

According to reports, only 40 to 50 ginneries are operating which indicates that very little unpicked cotton is left behind in the fields. Conseq­uently, trading volume is declining with each passing day.

The New York cotton market closed with fresh losses for all the future contracts. The Karachi Cotton Associ­ation (KCA) spot rates were firm at overnight level.

Major deals on ready counter were: 600 bales from Dharki, 400 bales from Yazman Mandi (Rs4,900), 1,000 bales from Rahimyar Khan (Rs5,400) and 1,000 bales from Sadiqabad done at (Rs5,400).

Published in Dawn, March 11th, 2016