Active buying by mills and exporters was witnessed on the Pakistan cotton market as prices moved warily on Tuesday. The official spot rate remained unchanged at Rs 5,200, dealers said. In the ready session, around, 20,000 bales of cotton changed hands between Rs 5200 and Rs 5300. In Sindh, rates were lower by Rs 100 to Rs 2000 and Rs 2025, while in Punjab prices were at Rs 2300 and Rs 2600.

According to cotton analyst, Naeem Usman, exporters and mills continued forward buying to meet their urgent needs. Other brokers said that falling trend in the prices is attracting exporters because demand was not improving from importing countries. Pakistan is buying Indian cotton at the reasonable rates instead of China.

The following deals were reported changing hands: 2000 bales from Khairpur at Rs 5200-5250, 2000 bales from Upper Sindh at Rs 5200-5250, 400 bales from Sumundri at Rs 5200, 400 bales from Bahawal Nagar at Rs 5200, 200 bales from Haroonabad at Rs 5200

, 400 bales from Pak Pattan at Rs 5200-5250, 800 bales from Arifwala at Rs 5200-5250, 400 bales from Vehari at Rs 5200-5250, 800 bales from Khanewal at Rs 5200-5250, 1200 bales from Alipur at Rs 5225-5275, 1000 bales from Chichawatni at Rs 5250-5275, 400 bales from Jhang at Rs 5250, 800 bales from Tonsa Sharif at Rs 5250, 1600 bales from Shadan Lund at Rs 5250-5265, 400 bales from Dera Ghazi Khan at Rs 5250, 800 bales from Fazilpur at Rs 5250-5300, 800 bales from Hasilpur at Rs 5250-5300, 200 bales from Bahwalpur at Rs 5250, 3200 bales from Rajanpur at Rs 5250-5300, 200 bales from Layyah at Rs 5275, 200 bales from Burewala at Rs 5275, 200 bales from Ghazi Ghat at Rs 5275, 200 bales from Jatoi at Rs 5300, 200 bales from Ahmedpur at Rs 5300, 400 bales from Muhammadpur Dewan at Rs 5300 and 400 bales from Mianwali at Rs 5300.

On global front, cotton futures dropped down for a fifth straight session, on worries over waning demand in China, the world's top textile market on Monday. The benchmark December cotton contract on ICE Futures US closed down 0.71 cent, or 1.1 percent, at 62.29 cents a lb after hitting 62.23 cents, the weakest for the front month in three weeks.