Rough rice futures at the Chicago Board of Trade closed higher on Friday, rallying from early declines on speculative buying and local short-covering, traders said.
CBOT September rice settled up 4-1/2 cents at its session high of $9.45 per hundredweight, while new-crop November ended up 3 cents at $9.70, just off its session high of $9.71. Man Financial was a noted buyer in the final hour of trade, traders said. Commercials sold small amounts at the day's highs and at the lows, they said.
Volume was estimated by the exchange at 518 futures, up from 364 futures on Thursday, and 10 options. The September/November spread traded at a carry of 25 to 26 cents. ADM Investor Services spread about 150 September/November, with locals, O'Connor and Co and Man Financial taking the opposite positions. In world rice news, officials in Bangladesh said the monsoon has largely disappeared in most of the country, delaying sowing of the rice crop.
Bangladesh produces more than 26 million tonnes of rice annually and imports around half a million tonnes of wheat to meet emergencies. The government will soon issue a tender to buy wheat, officials said.