Raw sugar futures relied on speculative and trade buying to finish higher on Friday as the pace of switch business slowed down since most positions have been moved out of the spot contract this week, brokers said.
The New York Board of Trade's key July raw sugar contract added 0.09 cent to finish at 8.56 cents per lb., dealing from 8.50 to 8.60 cents. October sugar gained 0.17 to 8.98 cents. One contract aside, the rest increased 0.15 or 0.16 cent.
The IntercontinentalExchange's NYBOT electronic market for sugar showed the July contract up 0.06 cent to 8.53 cents at 1:10 pm. "The rollover has slowed down because we've done most of them already. Nothing has changed fundamentally though so I still think we will go lower eventually," a financial house trader said.
In rollover trade, open interest in July fell 9,511 lots to 119,795 lots as of June 14. By June 19 or 20, dealers feel open interest will be under 100,000 lots.
Call volume was 13,202 lots and puts 6,326 lots. NYBOT said Thursday's screen trade was 97,895 lots and total volume 122,552 lots. Open interest in the No 11 raw sugar market fell 3,532 lots to 675,855 lots as of June 14.