With buyers taking to the sidelines and preferring to indulge in short-covering to meet their immediate demand, The market behaviour was firm and steady on Monday, but activity declined considerably due to short supply of quality cotton. However, brokers believed that ginners have started holding back their stocks in order to get better price.

According to floor brokers, spinner looked disappointed due to shortage of quality cotton as they are still in need of substantial quantity of cotton. The activity declined owing to short supply of quality cotton as the third and final picking was currently under way.

They added that in a meeting last week held between the Department of Plant Protection (DPP) and the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association, permission was granted to import cotton from India.

Besides, the DPP has also allowed the release of held Indian cotton at the Karachi Port after being assured by importers that they would destroy and burn the seed cotton, if any, from the consignments.

According to the Karachi Brokers’ Association, contracts for import of around 50,000 cotton bales from India were placed on the first day after getting permission by spinners and many more are in the pipeline.

Major deals that changed hands on the ready counter were: 970 bales from Sinjoro (done at Rs6,000), 1,400 bales Rohri (Rs6,300), 1,600 bales Saleh Pat (Rs6,300), 1,000 bales Dharki (Rs6,500 to Rs6,600), 1,200 bales Mianwali (Rs6,000 to Rs6,400), 600 bales Layyah (Rs6,335), 800 bales Faqirwali (Rs6,400), 400 bales Sadiqabad (Rs6,550), 600 bales Rahimyar Khan (Rs6,550), 1,400 bales Nasilpur (Rs6,575) and 1,600 bales Khanpur (Rs6,500 to Rs6,600).

The Karachi Cotton Association kept its spot rates steady at weekend level.