According to the traders, Pakistan has bought about 450,000 bales of cotton from India. Due to better prices on offer from China and Bangladesh, India is selling cotton yarn to them at higher rates, traders said. Trade circles added that Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) is buying 1.5 million bales locally to strengthen the market during the current season to stabilise the market and also support the textile industry in India.
On Thursday, the prices of seed cotton (Kapas/Phutti) in Sindh are said to have ranged from Rs 2,600 to Rs 3,200 per 40 kgs, according to the quality. In the Punjab, the seed cotton prices are reported to have ranged from Rs 2,800 to Rs 3,400 per 40 kilogrammes in a steady market. Lint prices in Sindh are said to have ranged from Rs 5,800 to Rs Rs 6,500 per maund (37.32 kgs) in a steady market. In the Punjab, lint prices were said to have ranged from Rs 6,200 to Rs 6,500 per maund. Though the present buying and turnover of cotton is slow, it may increase at the beginning of next week.
Brokers said in Karachi that the Department of Plant Protection has directed that imports of cotton from India through the Wagah border should be made in containers. In the meantime, yarn sales in Pakistan domestic market were not doing well. There were sporadic enquiries for yarns but mills remained worried over sales volumes.
In ready cotton sales reported on Thursday, 600 bales of cotton from Khanpur in Punjab were disposed at Rs 6,000 per maund (37.32 kgs). Brokers said in Karachi that upto Thursday (29 December, 2016) about 8.5 million bales (155 kgs) from the current season (August 2016 to July 2017) have been bought by the mills while exporters have picked up about 300,000 bales.
In the evening, 200 bales of cotton from Chistian and 400 bales from Hasilpur in Punjab were both sold at Rs 6,350 per maund (37.32 kgs), while 400 bales from Rahimyar Khan sold at Rs 6,500 per maund. Till November 2016, about 60,007 metric tons of cotton have been imported into Pakistan during the current season.
On the global economic and financial front, while the outgoing calendar year is closing herewith, it has not been without a number of surprises which could not have been predicted earlier. In the larger context, it was generally presumed that slowly but steadily the global economic condition will improve. Furthermore, one could not easily predict that the Middle East and adjoining areas would undergo a holocaust, where unprecedented slaughter would occur and a refugee problem of historic proportions would occur leading to the decimation of the populace with unprecedented intensity. Furthermore, that crude oil prices would crumble to fall from a hundred dollars to below fifty dollars a barrel shattering the economic and banking base of the oil producing countries.
It is not only the backbreaking economies of the crucial oil providing countries that would be mauled, but they would be humbled into a precarious condition the crisis and critically of which is really shattering. From Russia to Brazil and Saudi Arabia to Venezuela, massive fall of crude oil prices has brought down many oil producing countries to their knees.
The fissures, frictions and sociopolitical breakdown around most of the world is just the beginning. The worst is yet to come. Another serious phenomenon plaguing the world is the massive and mindboggling inequality of incomes which has become a highly dangerous development. Be it America or India, or more latterly Venezuela, it has permeated all walks of life which is threatening the very fabric of daily existence. According to data provided by the Oil Producing and Exporting Countries (Opec) early this week, life in Venezuela has become horrendous where mismanagement has bred a crisis leading to an economic catastrophic. Commodity led economic distortions and disturbances have resulted to inhuman conditions extending from Venezuela and Russia to China and Australia in recent past distorting their economic structures and financial stability. In the case of Venezuela, it has been reported that more trouble is on the way for "ordinary Venezuelans who are said to be struggling to survive the unfolding economic disaster".
Other outgoing problems include the status of Brexit which awaits a manageable solution towards the exit of UK from the European Union. Brexit is facing a "Bumpy Ride". Brexit is bound to bring massive problems to the United Kingdom which could last many years thereafter. The after effects of Brexit could disrupt the social life of Great Britain which could damage the British economy and bring down living standards permanently. The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has projected that "Politics, economics and power structures will be profoundly disrupted, and with it social relations".
It has been reported that China's forthcoming New Year starting 27 January, 2017 lasting upto 2 February, 2017 could foresee a grim situation due to tightening of liquidity in the money market. Resulting, Chinese investments may change from a bull market to a sizeable slowdown in economic activity. Thus many markets around the world do not appear to extend the recent "Trump rally" into the New Year (2017) and are presently tapering off into the lower level territory.