Raw sugar futures closed a whisker higher on Friday, with modest buying by local brokers supporting prices as the market stayed stuck in a narrow trading range and recent fund selling dried up, dealers said.
The New York Board of Trade's key October contract rose 0.01 cent to end at 9.68 cents a lb., trading from 9.65 to 9.80 cents. March futures climbed 0.03 to 9.99 cents. The rest of the board was up 0.03 to 0.10 cent.
Raws followed a similar pattern to the last three sessions, zigzagging between trend-line support near the day's lows and technical resistance at levels nearer to the psychological 10-cent mark, basis benchmark October sugar.
The market has been consolidating in a range since early August, when October raws shot to a 4-1/2-year high of 10.35 cents after weeks of steady fund buying.
"We're still in a range. There's no news to guide trading right now," said one floor broker, who added that discretionary buying by locals appeared to be the key feature.
"The support number is 9.60-9.61 cents - that's the 40-day moving average - and the market has been holding that this week. Resistance is up around 9.79-9.80 cents," he said
Analysts said traders were keeping an eye on the huge fund net long position in raws for a possible break to lower terrain.
In recent days, large speculative funds have been either liquidating October positions outright or starting to roll them into March before first notice day for delivery on October 3.
"Price volatility may pick up soon, as most of these positions will have to be rolled or liquidated in September," Jeffrey Christian of CPM Group said in a weekly softs report.
Fundamentally, the longer-term view is that sugar will work its way higher in the months ahead due to robust consumer buying from Asia and the Middle East.
Chartists eyed support in the October contract at 9.65-9.60 cents, followed by 9.58 cents, 9.54 and 9.50, with resistance seen at 9.80 and then at 9.92 cents.
Final estimated NYBOT volume was a subdued 30,978 lots, above Thursday's also light 27,167-lot tally. Call volume reached 2,696 lots, while puts hit 4,967 lots.
Open interest in the No 11 raw sugar market fell 1,884 lots to stand at 468,380 contracts.
Ethanol futures settled flat at 200 cents a gallon.
US domestic sugar prices closed mixed. November went down 0.14 cent to 20.46 cents and January lost 0.06 cent to also end at 20.46 cents. The rest finished between 0.07 cent lower and 0.02 firmer. Volume was about 667 lots, versus the previous 694 lots.