Jan 22 (Reuters) -ICE cotton futures scaled a near three-month high on Monday, steered by firm export demand and upbeat sentiment in the broader equities and oil markets.
* Cotton contracts for March CTc1 rose 0.83 cent, or 1%, to 84.78 cents per lb by 10:51 a.m. ET (1551 GMT), highest since Oct. 30. Prices rose as much as 2.7% in the previous session.
* "We had a very strong export sales report on Friday that sent the market higher and it looks like we're seeing a little follow through buying this morning," said Jack Scoville, vice president at Chicago-based Price Futures Group.
* "Higher energy prices for the day and stock markets trending higher lately, is also adding a little support. The economy is good."
* The U.S Department of Agriculture's (USDA) weekly export sales report on Friday showed net sales of 420,000 running bales for 2023/2024 in the week ending Jan. 11, up 60% from the previous week and 85% from the prior four-week average. EXP/COT
* The report also showed that weekly exports rose to 257,700 bales, their highest level in the 2023/2024 marketing year, and top cotton consumer China accounted for more than half of the net sales as well as exports.
* The benchmark S&P 500 scaled a fresh record high, extending a bull-market run into a new week. While oil prices rose, making cotton substitute polyester more expensive. .N O/R
* Speculators trimmed their net short position in futures of cotton on ICE by 4,905 contracts to 1,612 in the week to Jan. 16, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said on Friday.
* Elsewhere, Chicago wheat fell with little new demand visible after a flurry of big purchases in international tenders last week. GRA/
Reporting by Ashitha Shivaprasad and Anushree Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli