RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: Official spot rate, after maintaining a stable condition for a long time, went up on the cotton market on Thursday amid selective buying, dealers said.

The official spot rate picked up Rs100 to Rs9100, they added. In the ready session, over 1124 bales of cotton changed hands at Rs9300, they said.

Rate of seed cotton per 40kg in Sindh low quality was at Rs2800, while the best quality was unchanged at Rs4100, and in the Punjab prices of low quality were at Rs2800 while the fine type was available at Rs4600, they said.

In Sindh, Binola prices per maund were at Rs1400-1800, in Punjab rates were at Rs1650-1800, they said and the rate of polyester fibre was at Rs176 per kg, they added.

According to the market sources, both buyers and sellers were not keen to make deals under the present circumstances. Buyers were trying to get fine quality but the sellers preferred to be on the sidelines in expectations of good profit margin in the near future, they said.

Cotton analyst, Naseem Usman said that prices of fine type were gaining momentum the world over due to short supply of best quality cotton.

Adds Reuters: Cotton futures edged up on Wednesday, helped by an up tick in equity markets amid expectations of further stimulus measures to stem the impact of the new coronavirus and reports of a possible treatment for the epidemic.

March cotton settled up 0.16 cent, or 0.24%, at 67.51 cents per lb.

It traded within a range of 67.32 and 68.42 cents a lb.

Total futures market volume fell by 21,146 to 42,259 lots. Data showed total open interest fell 12,137 to 250,242 contracts in the previous session.

The following deals were reported: 924 bales of cotton from Dera Gazi Khan and 200 bales from Fort Abbas at Rs9300, they said.