KARACHI, Aug 5: Easy conditions prevailed on the cotton market on Friday as both buyers and sellers kept to the sidelines as their price ideas could not find a meeting ground. However, unconfirmed reports said a couple of bales of both the new and current crop changed hands at around Rs2,400 per maund, but the deals were confined to fine lots.

Official spot rates were lowered by Rs25 for the average quality but it has no negative impact on selling prices of both fine and new types, which ruled firm as ginners were not inclined to lower their asking prices. Floor brokers said some of the ginners in lower Sindh and central Punjab cotton belts had resumed operations after the recent rain but supplies from them were too meagre to influence the price situation.

Picking operations of phutti in selected areas have also resumed but the quality-conscious ginners have warned the growers to protect phutti getting wet, which in turn damages the quality of lint, they said.

They said arrivals of phutti into lower Sindh ginneries were expected to be normal by the middle of the next week if the current dry spell continued and there were no fresh rains. Reports coming from the central Punjab cotton belt also indicate that picking operations of phutti have resumed in some of the areas where early sown crop is being harvested by the pickers, market sources said.

Bulk of the new crop lint is, however, being purchased by the Punjab spinners at around Rs2,425 per maund, but the local spinners are relying on the lower Sindh stuff, they said. On the export front, private sector exporters have registered another 26,935 bales for export with the Export Promotion Bureau in July, raising the total deals to 0.797m bales, against which 0.493m bales have been physically shipped up to June 30, 2005.

After several lean sessions, official spot rates were marked down by Rs25 in line with the quality premiums, but on the other hand New York cotton futures rose by 0.21 and 0.8 cents per lb at 50.60 and 52.37 cents for both the ruling October and the forward December settlements, respectively.