New York sugar ends up

Raw sugar futures finished higher on Thursday on trade and suspected consumer buying, but the long shadow of a supply glut is seen keeping the market on the defensive in the weeks ahead, brokers said.
The New York Board of Trade's July raw sugar contract climbed 0.15 cent to settle at the day's high of 9.29 cents per lb, with the session low at 9.16 cents. October added 0.11 to 9.54 cents.
Distant months increased from 0.06 to 0.08 cent. On the IntercontinentalExchange's NYBOT electronic market for sugar, its July contract rose 0.14 cent to 9.28 cents at 1:23 pm. "We had some trade buying, but it was not terribly exciting. The market was due for a bounce and we could see it go higher from investors who are short in sugar. But I can't be bullish on this because you have all that sugar out there," a dealer for a major brokerage house said.
Analysts said top grower Brazil, which is expected to reap a record cane crop in excess of 400 million tonnes in 2007/08, still has to price a majority of that harvest. The market seesawed during the session, near its session peak before slipping back to near unchanged. A late burst of trade buying lifted the market going into the close of business.
"Any kind of short covering can lift the market maybe up to 10 cents even, but we will be hit by a lot of producer pricing before that happens," another broker said.
Technicians feel support in the July contract was at 9.00 and 8.50 cents, with resistance at 9.50 and 10 cents. Open-outcry volume in sugar around noon was at 8,408 lots, from the previous tally of 9,886 lots.
Call volume was 16,504 lots and puts 6,980 lots. NYBOT said on Wednesday's screen trade were 26,512 lots and total volume 36,398 lots. Open interest in the No 11 raw sugar market rose 1,965 lots to 710,240 lots as of May 2.
There were no deals in the ethanol market. US domestic sugar prices ended mixed. The July contract rose 0.07 to 21.04 cents per lb while September added 0.02 to 20.88 cents. The rest were flat. Screen volume traded on Wednesday in the No 14 sugar market hit 143 lots and open-outcry deals were 32 lots. On the electronic No 14 sugar market, the July contract went up 0.08 at 21.05 cents at 1:23 pm.