Cotton price edged up on the back of fresh buying by mills to make stock for upcoming holidays . Moreover, kapas or raw cotton quality is still not good.

A cotton broker said that mills are buying at this level as market will remain closed for about 10 days during Diwali festivalk. Gujarat Sankar-6 cotton gained Rs 200-300 to Rs 42,000-42,500 a candy of 356 kg.

Kapas was traded higher by Rs 15-20 to Rs 1,020-1,030 for a maund of 20 kg. At the APMCs in Saurashtra, kapas price stood at Rs 950-1,070 .

About 35,000-40,000 bales of 170 kg cotton arrived in Gujarat and 85,000-90,000 bales arrived in India. The broker said that price may remain strong during this week as buying activity is likely to gather momentum.

A trader said, “At present, export demand is not there and it will emerge after Diwali. Farmers selling will also increase after this.”

Meanwhile, heavy rainfall in several areas of Andhra Pradesh, in the past few days has caused damage to more than 40,000 hectares of cotton crops.

Cotton output in India may jump 6.7 per cent to 38.1 million bales in the crop year that began on October 1 from 37.5 million bales estimated in September and 35.7 million bales in 2012-13.