Raw sugar futures finished slightly firmer on Wednesday on buying by small speculators as the prospect of a long holiday weekend knocked most major players out of the ring, brokers said. The sugar market will be shut on Thursday and Friday, November 22 and 23, for Thanksgiving. Trading resumes on Monday, November 26.
ICE Futures March electronic sugar was 0.02 cent firmer at 9.77 cents per lb at 1:34 pm EST (1834 GMT), in a tight range from 9.74 to 9.82 cents. The March open-outcry contract rose 0.03 cent to end at 9.78 cents per lb, in a band from 9.74 to 9.79 cents.
May gain the same to 10.09 cents while the rest went up 0.01 to 0.08 cent. "It just sat there and there was really little appetite to do anything with the holidays coming up. Nothing could inspire it, not even when crude is now close to $100 (a barrel)," a financial house dealer said.
Crude's surge toward triple digits is seen further tempting producers to funnel cane into the manufacture of the alternate fuel ethanol. But large supplies in Brazil and particularly India, which has sizeable supplies of exportable sugar, are tipped to temper any such advance.
The market opened flat and both open-outcry and electronic sugar contracts stayed within a few points of unchanged for the rest of the session, dealers said. Technicians put support in the March contract at 9.60 and 9.50 cents, with resistance at 10 and 10.22 cents. Final open-outcry volume was at 8,371 lots, versus the prior tally of 6,590 lots. Call volume reached 4,325 lots while puts hit 2,480 lots.
Screen trade on Tuesday was 54,400 lots and total volume reached 60,990 lots. Open interest in the No 11 sugar market rose 258 lots to 762,153 lots as of November 20. There were no deals done in the ethanol market. The US electronic domestic No 14 sugar market showed the January contract up 0.14 cent at 20.50 cents at 1:36 pm Screen volume traded on Tuesday reached 179 lots while 307 lots were traded in the pit, the exchange said.
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