Rice futures at the Chicago Board of Trade sagged on Friday as commercial hedge selling pressured prices on the open, setting the weak tone for the day, traders said. May rice closed 12 cents lower at $7.02-1/2 per hundredweight, while the back months settled 6 to 8 cents lower. The March contract, now in delivery, was lightly traded and closed 8 cents down at $6.84. Deliveries against the March contract were light on Friday, with a Goldberg customer posting four contracts.
They were stopped by the ADM Investor Services' house account. Commercial selling in the session drove the May contract below $7 to $6.97. Commodity fund buying surfaced at the lows and again late.
Fimat Futures and RJ O'Brien were the featured buyers, while Man Financial was a seller, traders said.
In overnight export business, Japan bought 65,500 tonnes of rice.
They bought 12,500 tonnes of rice from the United States, 6,000 tonnes of Thailand and 17,000 tonnes from China. Japan also purchased 30,000 tonnes of optional origin rice.
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