ICE cotton futures rose for a second day on Thursday and traded within sight of a near four-year peak touched last week, helped by buying from speculators and mills. The most active ICE cotton contract for March expiry settled up 0.49 cent, or 0.60 percent, at 82.63 cents per lb. It traded within a range of 81.82 and 83.94 cents a lb.
"The specs are still buying to go with the trend and the trade, who should be buying it, are shorting more," said Peter Egli, director of risk management at British merchant Plexus Cotton. "We have higher lows and higher open interest ... that's just the sign of a market that doesn't want to back off because it has a lot of buyers waiting underneath," Egli said.
Cotton futures marked their highest level since March 2014 at 84.65 cents last week. Total futures market volume rose by 22,894 to 46,377 lots. Data showed total open interest gained 1,100 to 304,637 contracts in the previous session.