The Baltic Exchange's main sea freight index, tracking rates for ships transporting dry bulk commodities, increased on Friday, marking a month-to-month gain, supported by increasing need for the capesize vessel section.

* The overall index, which consider rates for capesize, panamax and supramax shipping vessels, edged up by 14 points, or 0.8%, to 1,815 points.

* The index has taped a 7.7% rise this month, ending the week on a favorable note.

* The capesize index increased 70 points, or 2.6%, to 2,820. The index published a weekly boost, marking a regular monthly gain of 34.3%.

* Average daily incomes for capesize vessels, which generally carries 150,000-ton freights such as iron ore and coal, increased by $581 to $23,389.

* Iron ore futures extended declines to end the week lower, as softening near-term demand and bleak factory information from top customer China weighed on belief.

* The panamax index was down by 25 points or about 1.5% to 1,693 points. The agreement was down for a 3rd consecutive week, marking a regular monthly decrease of 8.2%.

* Typical day-to-day earnings for panamax vessels, which normally brings about 60,000-70,000 lots of coal or grain cargo, lost $226 to $15,240.

* Among smaller vessels, the supramax index was down by 8 points or 0.6% to 1278 points and tape-recorded a month-to-month decrease of 13.9%.