US MIDDAY: sugar at 10-1/2 year high

Raw sugar prices closed Thursday at their highest level in 10-1/2 years on fund and trade buying and brokers said the market could rally further since the fundamentals stoking the rally have not changed.
Those fundamentals keeping sugar on the boil include the diversion of cane to produce the biofuel ethanol; a supply deficit; drought in key exporter Thailand; EU reforms which will cut European sugar output; and relentless buying by funds in charge of large pools of money.
The New York Board of Trade's benchmark March raw sugar contract climbed by 0.22 cent or 1.6 percent to close at 13.61 cents a lb, dealing from 13.26 to a new lifetime high of 13.63 cents.