NEW YORK, May 17: NY cotton ended fractionally higher Friday on buying by trade and speculative accounts, with analysts saying the market may build on its gains going into next week.

Key July cotton climbed 0.22 cent to end at 54.20 cents a lb, trading from 54-55.05 cents. December rose 0.31 to 58.28 cents. Back months went up 0.25-0.30 cent.

Locals came in short and got spooked when a couple of trade bids showed up. Trade selling at top stalled prices for the fourth time this week, said Mike Stevens of Swiss Financial Services in Mandeville, Louisiana. Locals got chopped up pretty badly today.

Frank Weathersby of brokers Affinity Trading in Fort Walton Beach, Florida said some of the small speculators opted to cash in their gains and bailed on their positions.

Early trade buying sparked more purchases from small speculators who piled in, but the trade turned sellers at the top of the range to effectively scupper the modest advance in cotton, brokers said.

The volume of activity though has been modest.

Trading has been...very thin, said Stevens. The market moved easily from one end of the weeks range to the other.

Analysts said the market will be gradually turning its attention to the pace of plantings in the US cotton belt.

Plains Cotton Growers reported some delays in cotton plantings in the High Plains of Texas, the top cotton growing state in the country.

Time is still on the growers side, but another week or two without significant rainfall and the situation will take on a considerably darker complexion, it said in a report.

Texas is expected to plant anywhere from 5.8-6.0 million acres of cotton. Total US cotton plantings would normally reach around 14 million acres.

Technicians said they believe support in the July contract would be at 54 and 53.80 cents, with resistance at 55 and 55.50 cents.

Final estimated volume reached 5,000 lots, from the prior tally of 7,518 lots. Total open interest in the cotton market rose 863 lots to 74,639 lots as of May 15. —Reuters