Raw sugar prices closed higher on Thursday on trade and broker buying, as speculative liquidation was light, but trade was thin after London white sugar trading stopped mid-way in the session, traders said. Euronext.liffe halted trade on commodities due to a technical problem.
It aimed to resume trading in the evening and delay settlement times.
The New York Board of Trade's key October raw contract rose 0.02 cent to close at 9.85 cents a lb., after trading from 9.77 to 9.92 cents.
March gained 0.05 to 10.07 cents, and the rest were 0.03 to 0.05 cent firmer.
After October raw briefly fell to a 10-day low, commercial buying came in to offer support, while producers lightly sold some sugar and two-way business by local brokers was reported.
"Funds are rolling long positions from October sugar into March futures, and that widened the spread," said one trader. "About 7,000 spreads probably traded, and that is giving support to March at the expense of October.
That should continue because of the huge open interest in October." Funds were net sellers of about 3,000 lots on Thursday, he added.
Flurries of fund selling have weighed prices at times since last on Thursday when October futures shot to a 4-1/2-year high at 10.35 cents a lb.
Even so, consumer demand was decent and the market sees top grower Brazil probably diverting more cane into ethanol given sky-high crude prices, which is supportive to sugar prices, analysts said.
Open interest in New York sugar fell further from Wednesday's all-time high, shedding 4,927 contracts to 484,649 lots.
Each contract represents 112,000 lbs. of sugar.
Traders said that support in the October contract rests at 9.80 to 9.75 cents, with resistance at Thursday's contract high of 10.35 cents, followed by 10.49 cents.
"A break below 9.75 will point the chart toward lower prices," said Scott Meyers at Pioneer Futures in a daily technical commentary.
Final estimated volume was 47,665 lots, compared with Wednesday's total of 36,142 lots.
Call volume hit 11,809 lots and puts touched 2,994 lots. Ethanol futures were untraded, with no quotes in the spot September contract after its prior settlement at 200 cents a gallon
US domestic sugar prices ended mixed again. November was unchanged at 20.58 cents.
The back of the board was from up 0.08 cent to down 0.04 cent. Turnover were about 430 lots, versus the previous 500 lots.