Wheat futures on the Chicago Board of Trade surged on Tuesday buoyed by a large Indian wheat purchase, traders said. CBOT December wheat in electronic trade was up 23-? Cents at $7.99 per bushel, after hitting $8.04. India on Monday decided to buy 795,000 tonnes of wheat to build stocks, 50 percent more than the initial amount offered at last month's import tender.
"India's large purchase proves that people are still worried about further price rises and short supply of wheat," said a Seoul-based trader. The regular CBOT market was closed on Monday for the US Labour Day holiday. On Friday, Chicago wheat notched an all-time high in overnight trade when the December contract touched $8.07 per bushel but faded back from highs.