Raw sugar futures surrendered earlier gains to end sharply lower Wednesday as chart-based liquidation kicked in when the market failed to breach key technical resistance levels, dealers said. The benchmark October sugar contract tumbled 0.49 cent or nearly 3.5 percent to close at 13.59 cents per lb on ICE Futures US.
The session range widened to a 1.00-cent band running from 13.41 to 14.43 cents. Volume traded in the October contract climbed to 68,591 lots by 2:35 pm EDT (1835 GMT). Sugar seen in a technical reversal after failing to garner enough momentum to push through a band of resistance at 14.40 to 14.45 cents - traders.
Indonesia plans to reduce sugar imports for industrial use this year after a bumper harvest and heavy buying, shoring up the domestic market at a time of rising global prices, the agriculture minister said on Wednesday. Sugar output in the western state of Maharashtra, India's main producer, could slump to 5.2 million to 5.7 million tonnes in the crop year beginning October, a senior trade official said Tuesday.
The state's output in the current crop year ending September is expected at 9.1 million tonnes, or about a third of the estimated total output of about 27 million tonnes. Top producer Brazil should be mostly dry with just a few light showers through Friday. Temperatures seen near to above normal - DTN Meteorlogix. "Recent rains may have caused some delay to the harvest of sugarcane in Sao Paulo but conditions for this harvest should be improving.
The new crop planting is underway with generally favourable conditions in place." - Meteorlogix. Final volumes on Tuesday amounted to 70,044 lots - exchange data. Open interest in the No 11 raw sugar market jumped 4,643 lots to 821,181 open contracts as of August 26, the exchange said. The domestic No 14 sugar market was largely flat, with only front-month November up 0.15 cent at 23.05 cents by 2:38 pm.