NEW YORK, July 26: Cotton futures finished near a month high Friday on follow-through investment fund buying and brokers said the strong tone to fiber contracts would spill over into next week.

The key December cotton contract settled up 0.64 cent at 74.50cents per lb after dealing from 73.45 to 74.80 cents.

Based on the second position charts, it was the highest close for cotton in about a month.

Volume traded in the December contract stood at 7,950 lots.

Keith Brown, president of commodity firm Keith Brown and Co in Moultrie, Georgia, said automatic buy orders kicked in, especially once the December contract raced past 74.20 cents.

Fundamentally, analysts feel cotton is looking more bullish over the longer-term because ending stocks are seen being run down due to lower supplies in 2008/09.

Allenberg CEO Joe Nicosia said cotton may rally 30 to 40 cents to as high as $1.15 a lb, a high last seen in the mid-1990s.

He said this would lead to a sharp reduction in world cotton ending stocks going into the 2009/10 marketing year (August/July).—Reuters