Raw sugar futures crawled higher in early trade Wednesday on fund short-covering while more switch business was seen from players moving their long positions in the market, brokers said.
ICE Futures electronic March sugar rose 0.14 cent to 12 cents per lb at 9:11 am EST (1411 GMT), trading from 11.74 to 12.05 cents. "It's mostly the switch, with the guys who are long on sugar getting out to the back months. There was also some fund buying in there which gave it a boost," a trading house floor dealer said.
Switches are seen most clearly through the open interest in the March contract, which stood at 384,586 lots as of February 4, down 7,344 lots from the previous session. Trading volume Wednesday in the electronic March sugar contract was at 16,458 lots at 9:13 am Total open-outcry volume at 9:00 am was at 1,427 lots. Open-outcry volume on Tuesday reached 6,954 lots and screen trade was at 128,621 lots, exchange data showed.