New York sugar futures higher

Raw sugar futures settled largely higher on Thursday on a steady round of trade and speculative buying, but the market is still pinned in a range and will likely stay in that band for now, brokers said. The New York Board of Trade's October sugar contract rose 0.07 cent to end at 10.22 cents per lb., in a band running from 10.18 to 10.35 cents.
March added 0.04 to 10.51 cents. Two contracts aside, the rest lost 0.02 to 0.04 cent. The more actively traded IntercontinentalExchange NYBOT electronic market for sugar showed the key October contract up 0.05 to 10.20 cents at 1:13 pm.
"For now, we're trapped between 10 and 10.50 (cents, basis October) until something comes up on the physical side of the ledger," a dealer for a major brokerage house said. A floor dealer said sugar, as it had done the past few sessions, would see some speculative accounts trying to push October up to 10.50 to touch off automatic buy orders sitting at that level.
"It then runs into trade or producer sales, stalls and comes off again. I think we're going sideways," he said. Fundamentally, most of the trade is keeping an eye on the strong performance of crude prices which may lure producers like top sugar grower Brazil to use more cane to churn out the biofuels ethanol.
The main bearish factor the market is facing would be the bumper supplies flowing out of Brazil and leading consumer India, which recently announced it is exporting 300,000 tonnes of sugar.
Technicians feel resistance in the October contract was at 10.50/53 cents, with support in the area of 10 cents. Volume traded in the open-outcry pit around noon was 3,031 lots, from the previous 5,193 lots. Call volume was 9,361 lots and puts stood at 15,585 lots. Screen trade on Wednesday was 46,641 lots and total volume was 51,834 lots.
Open interest in the No 11 world raw sugar market dropped 3,434 to 703,688 lots as of July 25. There were no deals in the ethanol market. The US domestic electronic sugar market saw the November contract up 0.04 at 21.44 cents at 1:13 pm. Screen volume in the No 14 domestic sugar market on Wednesday was 847 lots and 73 lots were traded in the pit.