"The market was more or less quiet as prices have risen quite sharply in the week, especially in the past two days," said Kishin Chand, a dealer at the Karachi Cotton Exchange. But he added that prices were likely to remain strong in the coming week on falling supplies as the harvest season approaches its end and on expectations of a smaller-than-predicted crop.

The Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association said arrivals for the current crop season were down 13.63 percent as of April 1 at 7.193 million bales (of 375 lb each), compared to 8.329 million bales in the same year-ago period.

Officials estimate final crop output in the range of 8.3 to 8.8 million bales, against an actual output of 9.2 million bales in 1997/98 (July-June).

Private estimates now range between 7.3 million and 8 million bales.