NYBOT raw sugar futures finished mixed on Wednesday as the spot contract came under pressure from late sales by small speculators, with the market seen possibly easing further from fund liquidation in the days ahead, brokers said.
October sugar lost 0.03 cent to close at 7.90 cents a lb, near the bottom of its trading band of 7.88 cents to 8.03 cents. March was unchanged at 8.46 cents. The rest went up 0.01 cent to 0.04 cent.
"I don't think we've seen the last of the fund selling. The fact that (October) ended lower on the day and the spread widened out would seem to indicate a negative implication for sugar," a long-time trading house broker said.
In cash news, India's farm minister, Shared Pawed, told reporters in New Delhi that the country has no plans to import sugar because it has enough stocks. India is the world's largest consumer of sugar and expectations of imports have helped stoke a rally in sugar to a 17-month high.
Libya said it has delayed but not cancelled a decision to tender to buy 100,000 tonnes of white sugar. Technical analysts feel resistance in the October contract would be in the area of 8.05/08 cents, then in layers up to the contract peak of 8.43 cents.
Support would be at 7.80 and 7.50 cents. Final estimated volume was 35,706 lots, down from Tuesday's tally of 49,188 lots. Call volume reached 3,244 lots and puts hit 2,306 lots.
November fell 0.01 cent to 20.03 cents a lb, while January rose 0.01 cent to 20.52 cents. Except for two contracts, the rest ended unchanged.
Final estimated volume stood at 34 lots, against the previous 191 lots.