NEW YORK: ICE cotton futures slipped nearly 1 percent on Wednesday as mills rolled over their March contracts ahead of the first notice day due next week. “The mills that had not rolled over their positions yet, went ahead and did that,” said Gabriel Crivorot, analyst at Societe Generale in New York.

“We’ve had a pretty big drop in the volume from the last couple days, partially that’s because most of the rolling over from March to May contract has already been done.”

The May cotton contract on ICE Futures US fell 0.86 percent, the biggest one-day percentage decline since Feb. 6, settling down 0.67 cent at 77.28 cents per lb. It traded within a range of 77.16 and 78.25 cents a lb.

Total futures market volume fell by 13,801 to 38,431 lots. Data showed total open interest fell 1,318 to 282,058 contracts in the previous session.—Reuters