Pakistan: Raw cotton declines

KARACHI: Raw cotton declined on Friday for the fourth consecutive day in the local market, despite a rise in the international market, dealers said.
“The international market has come under the substantial pressure because of Australia and Argentina, which started selling raw cotton at cheap prices,” said Naseem Usman, Chairman of the Karachi Cotton Brokers Forum.
Shakeel Ahmed, a cotton analyst, attributed continuous falls in cotton prices to low quality produce in the country, no buying from China, falling exports, weak US dollar and prolonged power and gas outages that pushed ginned cotton down.
“The Karachi Cotton Exchange (KCE) witnessed dull trading which scaled down local prices to Rs9,400 per maund,” said Ahmed.
“Buyers in both local and international markets remained reluctant to finalise big deals due to the lack of demand for the commodity.”
Spot rates of average-quality lint fell by Rs500 to close at Rs10,500 per maund and by Rs536 to Rs11,253 per 40kg due to the lack of buying from mill-owners.
Seedcotton (Phutti) remained unchanged in the range of Rs3,000 and Rs4,000 per 40kg.
At the International Commodity Exchange (ICE), raw cotton for May and July contracts gained 3.50 cents and 0.45 cents to close at $1.86 and $1.67 per pound, respectively, while reducing appeal for the raw cotton.
The country’s cotton sales stood at 1,800 bales of raw cotton (170kg each), including 800 bales from Mirpurkhas, 200 bales each from Sale Pat, Mirpur Mathelo, Deharki, Rahim Yar Khan and Faqirwali at prices, varying in between Rs9,400 and Rs10,500 per maund.