Euronext wheat prices were lifted on Monday by a technical rally in Chicago and as traders weighed up results of a first Saudi tender to allow Black Sea origins to compete in a key export market for European Union wheat.
Concern over dry weather concerns in some regions also lent support by shifting attention away from a bumper northern hemisphere harvest.
December milling wheat on Paris-based Euronext settled 1.25 euros, or 0.9%, higher at a session peak of 168.25 euros ($186.12) a tonne.
Since touching a life-of-contract low of 165.75 euros last week - the weakest level in more than a year for a second-month contract - December futures have been underpinned by a chart support level at 165 euros.
The run-up to Tuesday's expiry of front-month September futures, which shed as much as 7.25 euros in volatile trading, was keeping more distant positions firm, dealers said.
"Market impetus and a price rebound could come from a number of weather factors that are starting to build up," consultancy Agritel said in a note, citing rain risks to spring wheat harvesting in North America, drought in Australia and dry sowing conditions in Russia.
Australia on Tuesday made a sharp cut to its wheat production forecast for the coming harvest because of persisting dryness on the east coast.
In Argentina, meanwhile, dry conditions in the west of the country were raising yield risks, weather experts said.
A focus in Europe was a 780,000 tonne wheat purchase by Saudi Arabia's state grain buyer SAGO, in which Black Sea origins were expected to claim some sales after a rule over bug damage was relaxed.
The wheat offered to SAGO was from the EU, the Black Sea region, North America (excluding Canada) and South America. The seller has choice of origin.
Traders estimated that up to 60% of the Saudi purchase could be sourced from the Black Sea region and about 40% from the northern EU including Germany, Poland and the Baltic States.
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