NYBOT raw sugar ended on Friday near session lows on speculative sales and switch trade, with more rollovers seen next week as players get ready for expiration of the October contract, brokers said.
October sugar came off 0.07 cent to finish at 7.59 cents a lb, near the bottom of its 7.58 to 7.72 cents band. March fell 0.11 to 8.42 cents, moving from 8.40 to 8.58 cents. The rest were 0.12 cent lower to 0.02 cent firmer.
Fundamentally, the sweetener has shown some resilience due to expectations of a supply deficit in 2004/05 and talk of better demand especially from India, the world's largest consumer of sugar.
Small speculators piled on the market and the rollover activity added to the pressure felt by sugar, dealers said.
"The locals were putting a lot of pressure on it and we're still a lot of switches. I think we'll see a steady pace in rollovers next week," a senior trading house broker said.
Open interest in October slid 9,063 lots to 63,683 lots as of September 16 while interest in March climbed 4,845 to 152,891 lots. October expires on September 30.
Analysts said trade buying helped the market stabilise at its lows, but that follow-through pressure could nudge the market down when trading resumes next week. Traders saw resistance in October at 7.75 and then up to 8.00 cents. Support lies at 7.50 and 7.35 cents.
Estimated volume just before the market closed stood at 50,180 lots, versus Thursday's count of 50,574 lots.
Call volume hit 6,426 lots while puts reached 1,950 lots. Open interest fell 994 lots to 293,691 lots as of September 16.
Ethanol futures closed higher, with September up 1.00 cent at 100 cents a gallon. Total open interest held at four lots as of September 16.
US domestic sugar prices ended mixed Friday. November sugar eased 0.08 cent to 20.60 cents a lb and January lost 0.05 to 20.60 cents as well. Except for two, back contracts gained 0.01 to 0.10 cent.
Traded volume prior to the market's close was at 603 lots, from the prior 1,813 lots.
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