A few deals finalised on the cotton market on Friday as buyers were not interested in purchasing of inferior quality at high rates, dealers said. The official spot rate remained unchanged at Rs 6,950, they added. Prices of seed cotton in Sindh per 40 kg low type was unchanged at Rs 2500 and Rs 2700, in Punjab, prices were inert at Rs 2500 and Rs 3300, dealers said. In the ready session, over, 1,000 bales of cotton changed hands between Rs 6950-7200, dealers said.

Most of buyers become inactive in the absence of motivating factors, cotton analyst, Naseem Usman said. Trading activity may improve in the coming days when Chinese market will re-open after Lunar year holidays. In the meantime, the growers were hoping that prices may not fluctuate sharply owing to shortage of fine quality, this is a factor, which is propelling traders to export best quality to meet order on time, some other experts said. Earlier, cotton producing countries estimated better-than-expected cotton production, but now they facing shortage of crop, particularly fine quality, they said.

Reuters adds: ICE cotton futures climbed to a one-week high on Thursday after a weekly US government report showed export shipments hit a marketing-year high, raising expectations of tightening supplies in the United States, the world's top exporter.

The most-active March cotton contract on ICE Futures US rose as high as 86.69 cents a lb and settled up 0.79 cent, or 0.9 percent, at 86.31 cents a lb. US exporters sold 179,800 bales of cotton in the week ending January 30, according to the US Agriculture Department, with increases reported for Turkey, China, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Taiwan.

Further, shipments of previously-booked sales hit a marketing year high of 358,600 bales, easing worries that high prices would prompt mills to cancel orders.

The following deals reported as 400 bales of cotton from Dharki at Rs 7000, 500 bales from Haroonabad at Rs 6950 and 200 bales of cotton from Shadan Lund at Rs 7200, they added.