Raw sugar futures settled Thursday at a four-week low on speculative liquidation tied to players rolling out of the spot contract before it expires in two weeks, brokers said.
The New York Board of Trade's May raw sugar contract slipped 0.27 cent to end at 16.49 cents a lb, ranging from 16.20 to 16.65 cents. It was the lowest close for sugar on the spot daily charts since ending at 16.44 cents on March 17.
July lost 0.20 to 16.86 cents.
Back months retreated from 0.07 to 0.17 cent.
Judy Ganes of commodity firm J. Ganes Consulting said liquidation in the May contract pressured the market. She added that a recovery in sugar output in several producers may have put the market on the defensive before the Easter break.
The market is closed Friday and trading resumes Monday.
On the switch trade which depressed the market, open interest in the May contract fell 19,071 lots to 111,402 lots as of Wednesday. The contract goes off the board on April 28.
Fundamentally, most analysts said price direction will be provided by how much cane top producer Brazil will divert into the manufacture of the biofuel ethanol.
This could lead to tighter supplies although the steep increases in prices are seen spurring production in the months ahead, the analysts said.
Futures lost ground at the start on speculative sales, but late trade buying hoisted the market away from the lows, the brokers said.
"The specs really dumped it today and we'll see more liquidation next week," one said.
Technical analysts feel resistance in the May contract is at 16.90 and 17 cents, with support at 16.20 and 16 cents.
Volume before the close stood at 76,653 lots, against the previous count of 97,723 contracts. Call volume touched 22,328 lots, while puts hit 20,616 lots.
Open interest in the No 11 raw sugar market fell 3,897 lots to 471,746 lots as of Wednesday.
The ethanol market was untraded. US domestic sugar prices ended mixed. July slid 0.17 to 23.50 cents a lb and September lost the same to 23.50 cents as well. One contract aside, the rest gained 0.01 to 0.04 cent.
Volume before the close hit 1,412 lots, from the prior count of 565 lots.