Raw sugar futures settled a shade lower on Wednesday as the market sought direction after dropping to a three-week low for the third straight session, brokers said. "There's really nothing pushing the market one way or the other. They tested the downside, saw some good buying down there," one trader said.
New York Board of Trade's October sugar contract closed 0.02 lower at 9.82 cents per lb. after trading from 9.90 to 9.78 cents which marked a low dating back to July 16.
March eased 0.01 to 10.11 cents while the rest retreated 0.02 cent to 0.11 cent. The actively traded IntercontinentalExchange NYBOT electronic market for sugar showed the key October contract down 0.03 at 9.81 cents at 1:31 pm EDT (1731 GMT).
Some October/March position rolling contributed to the day's volume, brokers said. Raw sugar prices may run as high as 11.50 cents in the months ahead, but any advance will be a huge temptation for more sales from India and will be capped by a hefty surplus in the market, the trading director of Sudden Americas Corp said on Tuesday.
Volume traded around noon in the open-outcry pit was put at 7,747 lots, from the previous 6,691 lots. Call volume was 11,263 lots and puts stood at 2,201 lots. Screen trade on Tuesday was 52,180 lots and total volume was 58,871 lots. Open interest in the No 11 world raw sugar market was down 2,709 lots at 673,537 lots as of August 7.
No deals were done in the ethanol market. The US domestic electronic sugar market saw the November contract down 0.02 at 22.45 cents at 1:30 pm Screen volume in the No 14 domestic sugar market on Tuesday was 512 lots with 564 contracts trading in the open-outcry pit.