After maintaining a stable trend for a long time, the official spot rate dropped by Rs 100 to Rs 8,600 on the cotton market on Thursday in the process of modest trading activity, dealers said. The official spot rate was down by Rs 100 to Rs 8,600, they added. In the ready session, over 8000 bales of cotton changed hands between Rs 7800 and Rs 8500, they said. Prices of seed cotton in Sindh and Balochistan were at Rs 3000-3500 and in Punjab seed cotton prices at Rs 3000-3600, they said.

According to the market sources, some leading mills rushed to make deals to meet their urgent requirements. Commenting on the present slow off-take in the cotton market, they said that as a whole, the local market is not moving in the right direction due to poor condition of global economy. Despite falling trend in the cotton production globally, it was noticed that prices are not moving upward mainly because of slow demand by buyers, other brokers said.

In India, Cotton Association of India (CAI) has decreased it's last estimate from 335 lakh bales to 330 lakh bales, now it is interest to note that how the rates move after the downward revision by the CAI, cotton analyst, Naseem Usman said. Adds Reuters: ICE cotton futures maintained last levels on Wednesday. The following deals reported: 7000 bales of cotton from Fort Abbas at Rs 8000, 600 bales from Noorpur Nooranga at Rs 8500, 200 bales from Ahmedpur East at Rs 8400, 200 bales from Bahawalpur at Rs 8100 and 200 bales from Shujabad at Rs 7800, they said.

===========================================================================

The KCA Official Spot Rate for Local Dealings in Pakistan Rupees

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

FOR BASE GRADE 3 STAPLE LENGTH 1-1/16"

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

                                    MICRONAIRE VALUE BETWEEN 3.8 TO 4.9 NCL

===========================================================================

Rate              Ex-Gin   Upcountry   Spot Rate    Spot Rate    Difference

                    For      Price     Ex-Karachi  Ex. KHI. As   Ex-Karachi

                                                  on 06-02-2019

===========================================================================

37.324 kg          8,600      160         8,760        8,860        - 100/-

Equivalent

40 kgs             9,217      171         9,388        9,495        - 107/-

===========================================================================

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019