KARACHI, Aug 30: Cotton market on Saturday failed to sustain the overnight run-up as some of the Punjab ginners indulged in hasty-selling for not apparent bearish reasons.

Official spot rates were revised downward by Rs50 per maund, however Sindh type was traded at Rs50 premium over its Central Punjab counterpart.

Floor brokers said highly erratic price movements during the last couple of sessions in a way reflected two opinions about the size of the crop in the backdrop of reports of pest attack in the Punjab cotton belt.

“Prices rise one day only to fall the very next day with the same amount never allowing the textile sector to plan for long-term basis to remain competitive on the export front,” they said.

Early negative reports about the size of the crop owing to pest attack in the central Punjab cotton belt seems to have unsettled the crop projections as the market slips in the hands of speculative traders who now are calling the shots, they said.

However, the important thing is that lint prices are stable above Rs4,000 per maund after having touched all-time peak of Rs4,300 last month, which in a way also reflects weakness of the rupee, some others said.

“But the private sector exporters could not benefit from the record fall in the rupee as world cotton prices also fell below 70-cent per lb,” they added.

The official arrival figures of phutti into the ginneries for August will be announced by early next month by the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) and that will give a fair idea of the size of the crop, spinners said.New York cotton futures resisted fresh fall and were quoted higher by 0.37 and 0.42 cents per lb at 67.53 and 69.78 cents for both the ruling October and the forward December contracts respectively.

Ready business was fairly active amounting to about 20,000 bales, mainly in the Sindh type, the following important deals including some big ones were done on Saturday.

SINDH TYPE: 2,000, 1,600, 2,000, 600, 600, 800, 800, 400 and 800 bales, Shahdadpur, Tando Adam, Sanghar, Shahpur Chakkar, Sarhari, Hyderabad, Khipro, Daur and Mirpurkhas at a uniform rate of Rs4,125.

PUNJAB VARIETY: 600, 800, 600, 400, 600, 200 bales, Arifwala, Burewala, Haroonabad, Chistian, Khanewal and Bahawalnagar at Rs4,075 to Rs4,100 and 200 bales, Gojra at Rs4,110.