Tighter prices due to depletion of domestic cotton stocks.

Byline: DR ZAFAR HASSAN

As and how domestic current crop (2010-2011) cotton stocks are being exhausted, lint prices are perking up showing stability and steadiness. There are only an estimated 60,000 bales of unsold cotton left in the market which are likely to be lifted within the next two or three weeks.

Their presence in the market is hardly a significant factor in cotton trade. Exporters, however, may indulge in buying some quantities for their shipments against sales of cotton they made when lint prices fell early last month. Not much seedcotton (kapas/phutti) from the current season (2010-2011) is left in the market but its notional price was said to be in the range of Rs 2,500 to Rs 3,000 per 40 kilogrammes. New crop (2011-2012) seedcotton has started arriving in smaller quantities in such southern Sindh areas as Badin, Thatta and Mirpur Sakro and is being delivered to ginning factories in Shahdadpur in Sindh and Harunabad in the Punjab.

New crop seedcotton is said to be selling at Rs 3,500 per 40 Kgs. A couple of ginning factories may start pressing new crop cotton from the middle of this month ie June 15, 2011 if there are no intervening rains. There are …