China's Zhengzhou commodity exchange will launch evening trading from Friday for products including cotton, sugar and rapemeal, potentially increasing liquidity to the market and opening up arbitrage opportunities for traders.

The new trading hours, from 9 pm until 11:30 pm, will begin on Friday, said a statement from the exchange.

The extended hours mean traders can trade for a short period while other exchanges such as New York's Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), home to the benchmark cotton futures market, are also open.

Zhengzhou's move comes a few months before ICE launches five new futures contracts - including cotton and sugar - on its Singapore bourse, stepping up competition among the world's futures exchanges.