Aug 30 (Reuters) - ICE cotton futures rose for a third consecutive session to a three-week high on Wednesday on concerns of crop damage as tropical storm Harvey battered through some of the major cotton-growing regions.
Cotton contracts for December settled up 0.87 cent, or 1.24 percent, at 70.85 cents per lb. It traded within a range of 69.84 and 70.94 cents a lb, its highest since August 10.
"We expect quality losses to be at least as severe as those for yield ... These rains are, of course, unwelcome," Louis Rose, co-founder and director of research and analytics at Rose Commodity Group said in a note.
"Much speculation continues regarding the amount of this year's domestic harvest that was lost to Hurricane Harvey ... Some estimates are as high as 500,000 bales," Rose added.
On Wednesday Tropical Storm Harvey went on to swamp a stretch of coast from Port Arthur, Texas, to Lake Charles, Louisiana.
Texas leads the United States of America in production of the natural fibre. An estimated $150 million worth of cotton has been lost as the storms ripped the bolls off plants and left white fiber strewn across fields.
Total futures market volume rose by 1,899 to 26,193 lots. Data showed total open interest gained 26 to 224,967 contracts in the previous session.
Certificated cotton stocks deliverable as of Aug. 29 totaled 9,832 480-lb bales, unchanged from 9,832 in the previous session.
(Reporting by Eileen Soreng in Bengaluru; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)