Raw sugar prices ended higher on Friday on steady trade buying in the back months while the spot contract gyrated wildly before expiring at the close of business, brokers said.
The New York Board of Trade's July raw sugar contract climbed 0.16 cent to expire at 15.79 cents per lb, dealing from 15.42 to 16.20 cents. The benchmark October contract rose 0.11 to 16.34 cents, trading between 16.21 and 16.41 cents.
Back months increased 0.14 to 0.18 cent. "The whole thing was dominated by July as people got out. Now that it is done, we can take a look at the market and see where we go from here," a trading house floor dealer said.
Analysts feel the supply/demand picture is in rough balance with the amount of sugar seen rising in 2006/07 due to higher prices while demand is tipped to improve over the next few months. But most of the dealings on Friday were from players getting out of July as it expired.
Speculative liquidation pushed the contract down to its lows before surging to its session peak on trade buying. Open interest in the July contract was down 6,567 lots to 8,000 lots as of June 29. Traders said the final amount delivered against the tape in New York probably reached between 2,000 and 4,000 lots.
"There might be some Brazilians there, but it looks like most of the sugar will be from Central America," one said. Technicians feel support in the October contract was at 15.90 and 15.83 cents, with resistance at 16.50 and 17 cents.
Volume before the close stood at 34,777 lots, against the previous 51,820 contracts. Call volume touched 6,604 lots and puts hit 6,464 lots. Open interest in the No 11 raw sugar market rose 738 lots to 428,562 lots as of June 29.
There were no deals done in the ethanol market. US domestic sugar prices ended mixed. September eased 0.04 to 23.15 cents per lb and November was flat at 22.50 cents. One contract aside, the rest were flat to 0.03 cent lower. Volume before the close hit 14 lots, from the prior tally of 785 lots.