KARACHI, Sept 23: Cotton market on Tuesday maintained a bullish trend as spinners and mills continued to build-up long positions in an apparent effort to grab the floating stock of fine lots.

An idea of the strong mill buying may well be had from the fact that another 40,000 bales both from the Sindh and the Punjab ginneries changed hands at a premium of Rs25 per maund at Rs3,975 as compared to the overnight levels.

After having fallen below the benchmark price of Rs4,000 per maund to Rs3,925, a couple of sessions earlier, prices are again on the rising trend as some of the deals were done as higher as Rs4,050 per maund, an average being Rs4,000 per maund.

Apart from the strong mill buying, the notable feature was that the private sector cotton exporters were active in the market to cover their forward sales.

“Owing to recent crisis on the world markets and highly volatile New York cotton futures, some of the leading lint importers have opted for Pakistani lint and physical shipments are steadily being made against the forward deals,” exporters said.

Floor brokers said in the backdrop of highly erratic world cotton markets where lint prices fluctuating either-way never allowing spinners to plan whether or not to go for imports, leading among them had decided to opt for the local stuff.

That is perhaps why the market each day witness hectic and some cases panic mill buying at the current levels despite the fact that ginners are raising their selling prices by Rs25 after each alternate day, they said.

They said during the last couple of sessions prices had risen by Rs125 per maund from the recent low of Rs3,925 to Rs4,050.

Official spot rates were revised upward by Rs25 at Rs3,975 per maund, but in the ready section some of the deals were finalised around Rs4,050.

The following were some of the notable deals reported in the ready section on Tuesday evening:

SINDH TYPE: 3,600 bales and 2,600 bales Shahdadpur and Tando Adam at Rs4,000 to Rs4,025, 2,000 bales, Sanghar and 1,000 bales, Hyderabad and 600 bales, Shahpur Chakkar at Rs4,000, 1,600 bales, Mirpurkhas at Rs3,975 to Rs4,000 and 1,000 bales, Hala at Rs4,000 to Rs4,025.

PUNJAB VARIETY: 1,000 bales, Burewala and 1,200 bales, Chichawatni at Rs3,975 to Rs4,000, 800 bales, Mian Channu, at Rs4,000, 400 bales, Hasilpur at Rs3,980, 400 bales, Gaggon at Rs3,950, 400 bales, Gaggon at Rs3,975, 300 bales, Bahawalpur and 600 bales, Bahawalnagar at Rs3,950 and 400 bales, Sadiqabad at Rs4,000.