Oil prices fell on indications of improving supply and a rise in US jobless claims, despite support from the closure of a pipeline carrying Canadian crude oil to the United States. Brent pared back losses and US crude briefly turned higher on news TransCanada Corp has shut down its 590,000-barrel per day (bpd) Keystone pipeline from Alberta to the US Midwest and Midcontinent. The shutdown is expected to last for three days, the company said. "The market is in a phase where there is a strong r

State-run Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) has begun its annual cotton procurement drive for the 2012-13 marketing season (October-September ). The move is expected to arrest any downward pressure on cotton prices in the coming days. International cotton merchants such as Olam, Louis Dreyfus, Cargill, Paul Reinhart and Glencore are expected to start purchases in the next few weeks. "We have started commercial procurement of cotton in Punjab markets from today and will open procurement centres