Raw sugar futures closed higher on Monday on speculative fund buying in subdued dealings and the dearth of news is seen keeping the market range-bound this week, brokers said. The New York Board of Trade's October sugar contract rose 0.02 cent to conclude at 9.42 cents per lb., trading from 9.34 to 9.49 cents.
It was an inside day since the range was within on Friday's 9.21 to 9.59 cents band. March added 0.04 to 9.68 cents. The rest increased from 0.03 to 0.12 cent. The more actively traded IntercontinentalExchange NYBOT electronic market for sugar showed the October contract up 0.05 cent to 9.45 cents at 1:25 pm EDT (1725 GMT).
"It chopped around for most of the day. It climbed at the start on specs and fund (buying), tailed off and then came back late. After the sell-off last week, it's holding here to see where we go to next," a brokerage house dealer said.
Attempts to nudge the market higher have often run smack into a wall capping any advance and that is in the form of a hefty surplus that some had estimated at over 11 million tonnes. There is also some wariness among some investors about the credit crisis, which sparked a commodity-selling spree last week.
"You sort of wonder if we have more to go on that issue. We'll see," one dealer said. Technicians feel support in October sugar was at 9.00 cents. Resistance was at 9.50 and 10 cents. Volume traded around noon in the open-outcry pit was at 2,633 lots, from the previous 11,288 lots.
Call volume was 3,047 lots and puts stood at 1,294 lots. Electronic volume on Friday hit 67,019 lots and total volume was 78,307 lots. Open interest in the No 11 world raw sugar market fell 1,869 to 665,771 lots as of August 17. Ethanol futures were unthreaded. The US domestic electronic sugar market saw the March contract down 0.02 to 21.16 cents at 1:26 pm Screen volume in the No 14 domestic sugar market on Friday was 150 lots and no contracts were traded in the pit.