Cotton market under pressure
KARACHI: The cotton market came under pressure on Wednesday in line with global trend where most of the leading markets witnessed fresh downslide owing to higher cotton production estimates for India and the United States.
The last three days’ upward drive vanished as reports from world cotton markets of price crash reached the domestic cotton market. The cotton prices in ready trading fell by between Rs150 and Rs200 per maund (around 37 kilograms) and official spot rates were down Rs100 per maund.
The reports coming from global markets suggested that India is going to harvest good cotton crop owing to better weather this season while the United States was expecting 24 per cent high production per acre.
Moreover, as planned earlier, China is now going to release huge stocks of cotton from September to its domestic spinning industry, which also has had depressing impact on world cotton prices.
Due to falling cotton prices spinners rushed to replenish their stocks at higher volume which generated brisk activity throughout the session. The spinners preferred to build up their stocks fearing long closure during Eidul Azha and shortage of transport due to movement of sacrificial animals throughout the country.
Analysts believe cotton situation in Pakistan was still unclear because the recent spell of rains could be highly beneficial for the standing cotton crop or could even have adverse impact depending upon the age of the plant.
The Karachi Cotton Association (KCA) lowered its spot rate by Rs100 to Rs6,550 per maund.
Major deals on the ready counter were: 1,000 bales from Kotri (Rs6,600 to Rs6,700), 3,000 bales Sanghar (Rs6,625 to Rs6,700), 2,200 bales Shahdadpur (Rs6,650 to Rs6,700), 1,000 bales Mirpurkhas (Rs6,650 to Rs6,700), 1,400 bales Maqsoodo (Rs6,650 to Rs6,700), 1,400 bales Nawabshah (Rs6,700), 800 bales Hyderabad (Rs6,700), 1,000 bales Moro (Rs6,700), 2,000 bales Tando Adam (Rs6,700 to Rs6,725), 200 bales Bhakkar (Rs6,800), 200 bales Renala Khurd (Rs6,900), 400 bales Burewala (Rs6,925) and 400 bales Khanewal (Rs6,925).
Published in Dawn September 1st, 2016