KARACHI, Dec 1: The cotton market on Wednesday resisted fresh decline as leading ginners held on to their unsold positions, signalling that they are not inclined to further lower their asking prices.

Unlike previous sessions, ready off take shrank to a modest total, although spinners were out to lift all the lots offered for sale by the ginners, brokers said. In Tuesday's trading, central Sindh was lint was traded as lower as Rs1,625, which they said was the last end of ginners' parity level and that from the southern Punjab, most of the deals were finalized between Rs1,800 and Rs1,850.

"Lint prices may already have hit the bottom," market sources said, adding that "below this level ginners may not oblige the spinners and mills." Leading ginners seem to have opted for the second buyer that is the TCP, which is offering much better price for fine lots, they said, adding that "its total contracts amounting to 1.434m bales up to Nov 30, 2004, has raised hopes among the ginners that a better option is available to them to forestall any further decline in prices on the ready market.

Moreover, an improvement in New York cotton futures after a long weekend also signals that the worst may over with the cotton trade amid prediction of higher consumption projections in the user countries, they said.

However, future direction of the market will be largely guided by the arrival figures of phutti for the fortnight ended Nov 30, but one thing appears certain that next couple of weeks could tilt the price balance in ginner's favour in line with the international price trend.

The current arrival figures will give a fair idea of the total crop and that in turn will set the future price trend based on supply and demand factors, although the TCP stands price erosion risk as it has purchased a massive quantity well above the market rates to ensure a fair return to the growers.

Official spot rates resisted fresh decline after having fallen sharply during the last couple of sessions, while on the other hand New York cotton futures rose by 0.15 and 0.81 cents per lb at 48.65 and 44.78 cents for both the ruling December and the distant March settlements, respectively. Ready off take was light totalling about 20,000 bales as under:

SINDH TYPE: 1,000 bales, Mirpurkhas at Rs1625 to Rs1,650; 800 bales, Sanghar at Rs1,625 to Rs1,675; and 400 bales, upper Sindh at Rs1,875.

PUNJAB VARIETY: 2,000 bales, Rahimyar Khan at Rs1,875; 1,000 bales, Sadiqabad at Rs1,850 to Rs1,860; 2,000 bales, 1,000 bales, Rajanpur and Gojra at Rs1,825 to Rs1,850; 1,000 bales, Lodhran at Rs1,850; 2,000 bales, Bahawalpur at Rs1,850 to Rs1,875; 1,000 bales, Chishtian at Rs1,825; and 400 bales, Bahawalnagar at Rs1,800.