NYBOT raw sugar futures settled mixed Tuesday in activity featuring small speculators in subdued business, with the sweetener tipped to drift in a tight band given the dearth of market-moving news, dealers said. October sugar added 0.01 cent to end at 8.20 cents a lb while dealing from 8.15 to 8.26 cents. It was an inside day since the range was within Monday's 7.99 to 8.27 cents band.
March gained the same to 8.70 cents. The rest lost 0.02 to 0.08 cent.
The market crawled higher at the start to easily reach its high for the day, but spread-related sales by the trade and then by speculators nudged the sweetener into negative territory, floor sources said.
Technicians pegged resistance in the October contract at its contract peak of 8.38 cents and then 8.50 cents. Support was at 7.97, 7.92 and the recent low of 7.79 cents.
Final estimated volume was 18,272 contracts, from Monday's tally of 39,750 lots. Call volume hit 3,121 lots while puts stood at 3,257 lots. Open interest in the No. 11 sugar market rose 2,363 to 305,504 lots as of July 26.