Raw sugar futures on Tuesday settled at a fresh 3-year high on robust fund buying as the market's bullish fundamentals were expected to power the sweetener to higher ground in the days ahead, brokers said.
March sugar climbed 0.05 cent to end at 9.32 cents a lb., dealing from 9.25 to a new life-time high of 9.37 cents. It was the best close for sugar since trading near 10 cents in early 2001. May climbed 0.08 to 9.36 cents.
The rest sprang up 0.07 cent to 0.18 cent.
"I don't see any reason for it to go down," Marius Sonnen of Sonnen and Co said, adding the market should surge to the psychological target of 10 cents in the coming sessions.
A supply shortage in 2004/05 and talk of robust consumer buying has ignited the sugar market, prompting funds to aggressively take long positions in the sweetener.
Fund buying lifted sugar from the opening bell, despite solid producer sales from exporters like Brazil and Thailand, floor sources said.
An initial attempt by small speculators to sell the market down to a key support level around 9.18 cents, basis March, petered out, they said.
Technicians believe resistance in the March contract would now be at 9.50 cents, then the psychological target of 10 cents. Support was at 9.20 cents and 9.10 cents.