With buyers and sellers reluctant to agree on a common price, trading activity botched to pick up on the cotton market on Friday.

Floor brokers said that it seemed that buyers and sellers were marking time before drawing future strategy to get maximum benefit out of duty-free market access given by the European Union (EU) to Pakistani products.

Although very small quantity of crop has been left behind in the cotton fields and with ginners, it seemed that after suffering huge losses earlier this season growers and ginners were now determined to reap whatever gains they could and recover part of their losses, brokers said.

Consequently, business volume remained restricted in the absence of buying and selling and only a few deals in high quality lint were reported to have changed hands.

The following deals were reported to have changed hands on ready counter: 200 bales from station Ghotki done at Rs6,950, 200 bales from Pano Aqil done at Rs6,950, 200 bales from Rohri done at Rs7,050, 400 bales from Hasilpur done at Rs6,950, 400 bales from Karror Pakka done at Rs7,000, 400 bales from Yazman Mandi done at Rs7,000, 200 bales from Faqirwali done at Rs7,000, 400 bales from Kachiwala done at Rs7,000 and 400 bales from Haroonabad done at Rs7,000.

The Karachi Cotton Association (KCA) spot rates were firm at overnight level and trading volume on ready counter was slow and restricted.

A mixed behaviour was seen at the world cotton markets, New York cotton market also ended on mixed note, while Indian markets remained firm on strong domestic demand.