Chicago Board of Trade rough rice futures settled higher on Friday after good buying of new-crop months by Man Financial and speculative buying of nearby old-crop contracts, traders said.
"Trade was slow early, with some commercial or large speculative sales, but then came back on some options trade," one CBOT rice broker said.
CBOT rough rice settled up 15 to 29 cents per cwt, with March up 26 cents at $8.96 and May up 23 cents at $9.18 per cwt.
Rosenthal Collins was seen rolling in-the-money rice calls to out-of-the-money strikes, Man Financial bought 100 May $9.40 straddles at the day's lows, and Prudential Securities bought new-crop calls at $8.00, a rice options trader said.
In flat price trade, Man Financial bought September and November rice futures, while the market exploded on buy stops near the $9.00 level in May and the $9.20 level in July, a pit source said.
"There was some good commercial selling near the $9.30 level," he said.
Deliveries on first notice day matched CBOT traders' expectations, pit traders said. There were 532 rice deliveries reported on Friday's first notice day for CBOT March rice.
A Refco Inc. customer posted 204 lots, while a customer of the Goldberg Division of Refco stopped 165 lots.
Registrations on late Thursday jumped to 846 lots from the previous figure of 728 contracts.
CBOT rough rice estimated volume on Friday was 1,083 contracts, compared with Thursday's volume of 3,436 lots, while options trade was 290 contracts.