NEW YORK, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Cotton futures settled firmer Thursday on
buying by small investors in a range-bound market and fiber contracts are
seen drifting into the weekend given a lack of leads at this time, brokers
said.

Key March cotton futures rose 0.39 cent to finish at 91.30 cents
per lb, trading from 90.83 to 92.77 cents. It was an inside day since the
range was within Wednesday's 90.70 to 93.67 cents band.

The market has staged a modest rebound since hitting a session low of
88.50 cents on Tuesday in the lowest intra-day level for the second
position contract since the start of Sept. 2010, Thomson Reuters data
showed.

Total volume traded Thursday amounted to more than 12,500 lots, almost
50 percent under the 30-day norm, preliminary Thomson Reuters data showed.
'We're just kind of sitting here,' said Mike Stevens, an independent
cotton analyst in Mandeville, Louisiana.

The market barely reacted to the U.S. Agriculture Department's weekly
export sales report.

USDA said net upland cotton sales hit 85,000 running bales (RBs,
500-lbs each), of which China accounted for 65,000 RBs.

In the preceding three weeks, the USDA's weekly export sales data
showed China has bought over 2.3 million running bales (RB,s 500-lbs each)
as it replenished state stocks which have been run down to keep domestic
prices stable.

Open interest, usually taken as an indicator of investor exposure in
the market, stood at 137,741 lots as of Wednesday, off from the prior
session's tally of 138,214 lots, exchange data showed.

Total volume traded Wednesday came to 16,615 lots, versus the previous
tally of 19,103 lots, ICE futures U.S. data said.