* India's flip-flop on exports digested by trade
* Bearish fundamentals keep cotton on defensive

NEW YORK, March 12 (Reuters) - Cotton futures finished
lower Monday for the fifth straight session as the market
digested the gyrations major producer India has taken on its
cotton exports, analysts said.
The benchmark May contract on ICE Futures U.S.
declined 0.80 cent to finish at 88.00 cents per lb, dealing from
87.01 to 89.16 cents.
Volume traded Monday reached almost 21,000 lots, about 15
percent under the 30-day norm, Thomson Reuters data showed.
Cotton slid early after news that India had lifted its ban
on cotton exports. That soon changed when New Delhi said it
would ban fresh cotton and allow only quantities that had
already been registered for export but have yet shipped.

India is the world's No. 2 cotton producer and the biggest
exporter after the United States.
New Delhi had imposed a ban on cotton exports last Monday.
The decision was challenged by India's farm minister and the
Indian ministers meeting did not immediately decide on the
issue.
But the market was oversold and suspected trade and consumer
buying seemed to emerge at the market's lows, analysts said.
The outlook for cotton futures, though, is bearish given
market fundamentals.
Jobe Moss, an analyst for brokers and merchants MCM Inc in
Lubbock, Texas, said he would not be surprised if cotton prices
keep falling and drift below 80 cents in the coming months.
Bearish fundamentals were underscored by last Friday's
monthly supply/demand report from U.S. Agriculture Department.
USDA upped world 2011/12 cotton production to 123.64 million
(480-lb) bales from an earlier estimate of 123.34 million,
reduced world consumption to 108.72 million bales from 109.71
million, and raised world ending stocks to 62.32 million from
60.77 million bales.
Over the last few months, USDA has been cutting world cotton
output and usage, causing stocks to expand.