Cotton futures rose on Thursday to their highest level in a week, perked up by speculative buying and a healthy demand for the natural fibre. The market also took stock of weekly export sales report from the US government, which showed net upland sales of 129,300 running bales for 2016/2017 were down 62 percent from the previous week.
Even though the export sales report was neutral, there is still good demand, with active enquiries from across the board, particularly from Asian countries, according to Jim Lambert, director of sales at Capstone Merchant Services. "Cotton is offering very good return this year," Lambert noted.
The December cotton contract on ICE Futures US settled up 0.5 cent, or 0.72 percent, at 69.76 cents per lb. It traded within a range of 68.78 and 70 cents a lb., a peak since October 20. The most active soybean futures contract on the Chicago Board Of Trade rose 0.7 percent to $10.16-3/4 a bushel by 1112 GMT while CBOT corn rose 1.0 percent to $3.57-1/2 a bushel. Total futures market volume fell by 6,556 to 19,883 lots. Data showed total open interest gained 239 to 260,742 contracts in the previous session.