Slow trading activity witnessed amid high cotton prices and the absence of demand for cotton yarn and fabrics at cotton market on Monday. There was little trading interest from the outset which continued till the end of the session, brokers said.

The Karachi Cotton Association’s spot rates were firm at weekend level.

Rising imports of cotton also slowed down trading on the domestic market. Brokers said that big spinners have already booked 2.2 million cotton bales for imports and have already purchased higher quantity of around 9m bales from domestic market.

On the ready counter only one transaction was reported to have done at Rs6,900 per maund (around 37 kilograms).

Market analysts believe that a pause in trading activity has been caused by high stocks held by spinners coupled with larger quantity of imports. But a spell of severe cold and rains in major parts of the country also restricted movement of phutti (seed cotton) form fields into ginning factories, they added.

The world cotton markets gave mixed trend. The Indian market closed easy after coming under profit-selling. However, the Chinese cotton market moved higher.