PARIS: European wheat futures edged lower on Thursday as part of a wide global sell-off in commodities including the Chicago grain markets due to economic concerns after the US Federal Reserve said it would begin to scale back stimulus measures.
Traders said a 0.6 percent fall in the euro against the dollar was supportive.
Benchmark November milling wheat on the Paris futures market was down 0.5 percent at 199.50 euros ($260) a tonne by 1603 GMT after falling to 198.25 in earlier trade.
On Wednesday it briefly hit a one-week high of 200 euros on news that China had bought 200,000 tonnes of French wheat. The last time China bought significant volumes of wheat in France was during the 2004/2005 season.
Traders pointed out, however, that 200,000 tonnes was a relatively small amount in light of France's export ambitions for 2013/2014.
"This is not as if we had discovered a new buyer on the world market. China has quality concerns and import needs. But (a sale of 200,000 tonnes) does not mean French wheat has found a new buyer," one trader said.
In Chicago, grain prices fell on Thursday amid a broad-based commodity sell-off and a firming dollar, a day after the Fed signaled it was ready to slow the pace of bond purchases.
Egypt's supplies minister said Cairo plans to buy wheat on international markets before the end of its fiscal year on June 30, potentially ending a four-month purchasing hiatus due to its economic crisis.
Analyst Strategie Grains lifted its forecast for this year's soft wheat harvest in the European Union due to higher yield estimates following favourable weather conditions in many parts of the bloc in the past few weeks.
Heavy rainfall in southwestern France in the past few days is likely to cut maize sowings in the country by 3.5 percent, an expert said.
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