KARACHI: Trading on the cotton market slowed down on Monday amid dwindling cotton stocks and higher prices.

Many leading spinners have already accumulated their seasonal need of cotton while small and medium sized units are currently looking for quality cotton at competitive prices.

Ginners currently hold not more than 500,000 bales at present. Moreover, the next cotton season is more than four months away.

According to US Department of Agriculture, India has so far imported around 2.8m bales of quality cotton as against 1.3m last year. Similarly, India has also exported almost the same quantity as of last year of around 5m bales.

Though there is regular off-take of cotton yarn on the domestic market, exports have f allen due to tough competition on the world market.

The Karachi Cotton Association left its spot rates unchanged. Major deals on the ready counter were: 800 bales from Fort Abbas at Rs6,800 per maund (around 37 kilograms) and 400 bales from Dahranwala at Rs6,800.