CIJENE PAMUKA NA BURZI U NEW YORKU

U.S. pamuk prodaja na tržištu - 20. listopada 1997. _________________________________________________________________ Ukupna prodaja na 7 tržišta u SAD-u 2,810 ( 7,277 prijašnji dan) Prosiječna cijena 1-1/16 inch cotton 68,98 centi (69,49 prijašnji dan) _________________________________________________________________ NEW YORK - pamuk zatvaranje - 20. listopada 1997. _________________________________________________________________ MJE. ZADNJA OTVA NAJ- NAJ- ZATVA- NAGODBE RANJE VIŠA NIŽA RANJE DEC7 71.15 71.55 71.61 70.86 71.10 71.12 MAR8 72.55 73.00 73.05 72.35 72.51 72.53 MAY8 73.35 73.80 73.80 73.20 73.35 73.37 JUL8 74.20 74.60 74.60 74.10 74.20 74.23 OCT8 75.90 76.10 75.90 75.90 75.90 75.90 DEC8 76.05 76.25 76.30 75.95 76.05 76.05 MAR9 77.05 76.99 77.00 MAY9 77.80 77.80 77.90 JUL9 78.10 78.10 78.25 OCT9 76.00 77.00 77.10 NYCE cotton ends down on local and spec selling NEW YORK, Oct 20 (Reuters) - NYCE cotton futures finished broadly lower on Monday, pressured by speculative and local selling, dealers said. They said today's activity was mainly technically driven, with short-term speculators pushing the active December contract through chart support at 71.00 cents per lb in an effort to find sell-stops. But trade buying toward the lows stopped the downslide, defending December's subsequent support level at 70.80 cents -- its life-of-contract low -- and helping to push the spot months back over the 71.00-cent mark by the close. December cotton ended at 71.12 cents, down 0.51 cent, after ranging from 71.61 and 70.86 cents. The rest of the board ended 0.53 weaker to 0.10 firmer. Some traders said last week's devaluation in Pakistan rupee against the U.S. dollar and the Taiwan dollar's sharp depreciation versus the U.S. dollar sparked concerns that U.S. cotton exports may be less competitive -- as well as less attractive to foreign buyers. The Bank of Pakistan slashed the rupee value by eight percent versus the dollar, while the Taiwan dollar fell to 10-year lows Monday after the central bank's decision on Thursday to abandon long-term support of the currency. "The devaluation in currency in Pakistan prompted their exports to be promoted more -- even while they raised their prices," said one U.S. trader. "Also, we have seen our dollar increase in the Asian markets which could indicate less U.S. exports. There is some sentiment exports are not going to be so good this week." Traders also said favorable weather conditions across most of the the U.S. cotton belt may have also accounted for today's weak tone. "There's pretty much ideal conditions everywhere," said a trader. "We had a weekend of excellent harvest conditions and that tends to weigh on the market." "The adverse weather was in the southeast," he added. "But merchants tell us they didn't mind the rains because they want more color in the cotton for grade variance." News China will cut the value added tax by three percent from the current 13 percent in the northwestern region of Xinjiang to make its domestic cotton more competitive was another bearish factor, although most traders said there were still uncertainties about the tax cut's and other China cotton policy's impact on U.S. imports to China. "There's still some doubts about the policy's effect on Chinese imports," said another trader. "Most people don't think it will have any effect because their cotton is lower quality and they still need high grade imports from the U.S." China is the world's top importer of cotton and the largest buyer of U.S.-grown cotton. Traders await the weekly spec/hedge report due before the opening bell on Tuesday. They expect the NYCE data to show a slight increase of some two-to-three percent in the speculative net short position from a 23.2 net speculative short position reported last week. Volume reached an estimated 12,500 lots, more than double Friday's offical total of 5,577 lots. 211116 MET oct 97