London white sugar futures settled higher on trade and fund buying against producer selling on Thursday, with active October-December spread trading, dealers said.
Front-month October finished at the session high of $249.0 a tonne, up $2.0, in volume of 3,042 lots, having traded in a $249.0-246.5 range.
December closed at $256.5, up $2.0, in volume of 1,838 lots.
"There was fund buying in New York and London, and a lot of October-December spreads were traded," one trader said.
Another said: "Funds and trade bought today against good producer selling."
A third trader said the market still appeared strong technically, but others said it was vulnerable to a downward correction with physical buyers likely to be discouraged at current levels.
In fundamentals, France's third sugar beet test showed an average sugar content of 15.71 percent compared with 17.48 percent last year and 15.72 percent two weeks ago, French sugar manufacturers' association SNFS said on Thursday.