NEW YORK: Cotton futures advanced on Friday, as a 10-percent surge in crude oil prices lifted commodities markets.

"Cotton followed the general rally," said INTL FC Stone brokers in a note.

Weekly U.S. government export sales data was in line with expectations, they said. Net upland sales totaled 194,600 running bales in the most recent reporting week, jumping 14 percent from the prior week, the data showed.

* The March cotton contract on ICE Futures U.S. settled up 0.36 cent, or 0.58 percent, at 62.45 cents per lb. It traded within a range of 62.05 and 62.75 cents a lb.

* The cash to second-month spread fell 0.02 cent to 0.37 cents per lb.

* Total futures market volume fell by 2,236 to 17,637 lots. Data showed total open interest gained 1,617 to 190,474 contracts in the previous session.

* Certificated cotton stocks deliverable as of Thursday totaled 61,303 480-lb bales, up from 61,233 in the previous session.

* The dollar index was up 0.47 percent. The Thomson Reuters CoreCommodity CRB Index, which tracks 19 commodities, was up 2.93 percent.