US raw sugar futures settled mixed on Tuesday with computer-based fund dealings keeping trade directionally and in a tight range, traders said. "We have a lot of activity where the fund buys it and if (the market) moves against them, they're getting out, and it's causing the market to trade back and forth in a 20-point range without direction," one trader said.
ICE Futures open-outcry October sugar contract gained 0.01 cent to finish at 9.30 cents per lb., with trades running in a narrow band from 9.20 to 9.40 cents. March dropped 0.03 cent to end at 9.66 cents while the rest ranged from flat to 0.02 lower. The ICE electronic market for sugar showed the October contract down 0.01 cent at 9.28 cents at 2:19 pm EDT (1819 GMT). Two-sided, computer-based algorithmic fund dealings kept the pace.
"We hit stops around 9.77 (cents), that's what made us rally up to 9.82, and then on the downside there were (sell) stops below 9.70 and that's what made it drop so much," another trader said, referring to the March contract. Position rolling out of the October contract into March remained a feature with index funds ahead of the front month's expiration September 28.
Open interest in the October contract fell 26,051 to 254,266 lots as of September 10. ICE estimated final pit volume at 34,728 on Tuesday, compared to open-outcry volume on Monday at 46,919 lots and screen trade reached 115,544 contracts.
"The whites are sort of leading the raw down a murky path," one dealer said, referring to a bearish factor. London white sugar touched a 26-month low but ended little changed.
"The oscillators (for October) are pointing lower, lending a bearish short-term outlook. In the medium-term, the weekly chart features a mature downtrend in New York sugar, with sideways/slowly lower price action likely," said Veronique Lashinski, analyst for Fimat USA in Chicago, on a Monday report.
ICE Futures US ceased pit trade for one minute at 8:46 am EDT (1246 GMT), 9:03 am, 9:59 am and 10:29 am, to mark the sixth anniversary of the September 11 hijacked plane attacks on the World Trade Centre.
Electronic dealers were asked to refrain from trade during the moments of silence. In related news, the world's largest raw sugar buyer, Russia, is likely to adopt a long-awaited higher seasonal tariff on raw cane imports from December, a Finance Ministry official said on Tuesday.
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