Mumbai - Cotton futures were trading down slightly amid selling by speculators and traders on both the domestic exchanges Tuesday. While MCX April-08 cotton lost Rs 2.10/20kg, the NCDEX April-08 contract was down Rs 1.10/20kg during the initial trade. The futures had closed the previous session with minor gains.

Earlier, ICE pit-traded cotton futures settled at session lows Monday as there was little interest in taking delivery of the commodity on December's first-notice day, which sparked liquidation, analysts said. Most active March settled down 62 points at 64.92 cents a pound, a low last touched Sept 12. December ended sharply lower, losing 146 points to 58.61 cents, a low not seen since Aug 30.

At 10.24 am IST, benchmark NCDEX April-08 cotton futures were down Rs 1.10 to trade at Rs 464.80/20kg, after fluctuating between Rs 463.00 and 464.90 per 20kg. Open interests in April-08 cotton was 5470 lots. NCDEX March-08 cotton was down Rs 1.20 to trade at Rs 460.50/20kg. Open interests for the contract were positioned at 597 lots.

At 10.25 am IST, MCX April-08 cotton futures were down Rs 2.10 to trade at Rs 446.00/20kg.

[Source: Dow Jones Newswire, MCX & NCDEX]