Chicago Board of Trade rough rice futures closed higher on Wednesday on speculative buying by funds, with most-active March rising to a contract high, traders said.
January rice closed up 9 cents per hundredweight at its daily high of $7.99, while March closed up 10 cents at $8.26-1/2 after posting a new high at $8.28.
Buy-stops were triggered in March rice above $8.25, pushing values to the day's highs late in the session. RJ O'Brien was a late buyer along with ABN Amro and locals, traders said.
RJ O'Brien was also buyer along with Man Financial, lifting prices in the minutes of trade. Commercials sold on the rallies, traders said. The January/March spread traded at a carry of 26 to 26-1/2 cents, with RJ O'Brien buying January against the March, traders said. Outright volume was heavy, estimated by the exchange at 3,017 futures and 226 futures.
Traders said the day's rally was primarily technical, but the rice market drew some support from a higher USDA weekly world market price. The US Department of Agriculture late on Tuesday raised the world market price for long grain rough rice to $5.97, from $5.91 the previous week.
In world rice news, South Korea's state-run Public Procurement Service said it would tender to buy 30,000 tonnes of Chinese brown rice on January 18.
Rice trade in Vietnam, the world's second-largest exporter after Thailand, is expected to remain slow until February due to a government ban on new export deals to ensure sufficient food supply, Asian traders said.
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