ICE cotton futures slipped on Friday, but marked their biggest weekly percentage rise since early February on a higher demand for the natural fibre. The December cotton contract on ICE Futures settled down 0.56 cent, or 0.81 percent, at 68.42 cents per lb. It traded within a range of 67.51 and 69.2 cents a lb.
"The market is returning some of the gains from yesterday (Thursday), but it is not a significant correction because it has been up more than 2 percent for the week," said Gabriel Crivorot, analyst at Societe Generale in New York. The contract gained about 2.8 percent to register its biggest weekly percentage gain since the week of February 3.
ICE cotton futures hit one-month highs on Thursday after a positive weekly exports sales report from the US government suggested higher demand for the fibre. China sold 25,200 tonnes of cotton at auction of state reserves, which amounted to 83.6 percent of the 30,100 tonnes of cotton available at the auction, China's cotton industry website cncotton.com said on Thursday.
"Demand for US new crop bales remains strong, even as merchants have strengthened basis quotes to mills, which is bullish," said Louis Rose, co-founder and director of research and analytics at Rose Commodity Group. Total futures market volume rose by 5,514 to 22,648 lots. Data showed total open interest gained 875 to 217,465 contracts in the previous session. "The market will continue to see support in the mid-60s and we could even see a spike towards resistance at 72 cents on spec short covering," Plexus Cotton said in a note.
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