Commodities: Slow trading on cotton market.

KARACHI -- Trading remained slow and restricted on the cotton market on Thursday.

Prices generally remained firm. However, traders adopted a wait-and-see approach in anticipation of the monetary policy. Towards the closing hours, the news of 0.25 basis points increase in the SBP policy rate further dampened the market sentiment on fear that this would increase the cost of doing business.

On the global front, the US-China trade negotiations are also feared to end in a deadlock. The world leading cotton markets gave a mixed trend, with the Chinese cotton closing easy and New...