Chicago Board of Trade rough rice futures ended higher on Tuesday on speculative buying of old-crop May and light commercial buying of new-crop contracts, traders said.
Expectations that the US Department of Agriculture would raise the weekly world market price for long grain rough rice, following a sharp rally in Asian rice prices, also underpinned CBOT futures trade, they said.
After the CBOT market closed, the USDA announced a gain of 21 cents per cwt in the weekly price, to $4.83 per cwt.
CBOT rough rice settled up 9 to 13 cents per cwt, with March up 12 cents at $10.08 per cwt and May up 12-1/2 cents at $10.26-1/2.
"Trade was slow, and it seemed to be a (speculator) induced rally," one CBOT rice trader said. "There were buy stops above the $10.15 level in May to the day's highs."
Man Financial bought new-crop September, November and January, he added.
CBOT rough rice estimated volume on Tuesday was 308 contracts, compared with Monday's volume of 389 lots. Options trade totalled 171 lots.