KARACHI, Dec 15: Cotton prices on Saturday maintained bullish trend as spinners and mills haunted by short supply indulged in panic buying despite delivery problems caused by higher freight rates.

Some of the deals in the fine lots from the Punjab ginneries were finalised as higher as Rs3,175 per maund, up by Rs50 to Rs75 per maund from the overnight closing rates, floor brokers said.

Inferior types both from the central Sindh and the Punjab cotton belts, however, changed hands between Rs2,975 to Rs3,025 per maund depending on the quality.

An idea of spinner scramble to corner the floating stock of lint may well be had from the fact that a big deal of 5,000 bales from the Kabirwala ginneries was finalised at the session’s high rate of Rs3,175, they said.

“The cotton trade is under squeeze for the second time during the current season as prices are heading to their last month’s high level of Rs3,250 per maund possibly beyond them as by now the size of the crop is pretty clear,” cotton analysts said.

What could further accentuate the price situation is fear that the local market may follow the current trend on the New York Cotton Exchange where May future contract is eyeing the level of 70 cents per lb, they added.

The renewed mill buying euphoria reflects that spinners and mills have a fair idea of future supplies and prices and are back on the market to cover their forward positions irrespective of the price hike ,market sources said.

Official spot rates were again quoted unchanged at the last level of Rs3,000 per maund but in physical trading most of the deals were done well above them.

New York cotton futures on the other hand recovered from the overnight lower levels and ended with gains ranging from 0.94 and 0.86 cents per lb at 65.85 and 67.22 cents for both the ruling March and the forward May contracts, respectively.

Ready off-take was on the higher side as over 20,000 bales changed hands, the following being some of the notable deals:

SINDH TYPE: 2,600 bales, upper Sindh at Rs3,115, 2,000 bales, Khairpur at Rs3,025, 400 bales, Shahdadpur and 200 bales, Khipro, at Rs3,000.

PUNJAB VARIETY: 1,000 bales, Rahimyar Khan and 5,000 bales, Kabirwala at Rs3,175 and 3,000 bales, Khanewal at Rs3,150.

Other notable deals were reported as under: 400 bales each Lodhran, Shadan Lund, Jampur, Layyah, Jalalpur and Ahmedpur East, 200 bales each Bahawalpur, Rajanpur, Mongi Bangalow and Sadiqabad and 600 bales, Alipur at Rs3,100 to Rs3,140.