Raw sugar futures settled easier Friday on investor profit-taking as the market retreated after a commodity-wide rally pushed the sweetener up a three-week peak in the prior session, brokers said. The key May raw sugar contract slipped 0.08 cent to end at 13.54 cents per lb.
Traded from 13.42 to 13.62 cents. It was an inside day as the trading range held as within Thursdays 13.33 to 13.76 band. Volume traded in the May contract reached 29,876 lots at 2:03 pm EDT (1803 GMT). July sugar fell 0.02 cent to finish at 13.97 cents. Larry Young, an analyst for brokerage Infinity Futures in Chicago, said sugar seems to be positioning itself for a run toward 14 cents in the May contract next week.
"Well take another stab at it," he said. Fundamentally, sugar futures have been bolstered by expectations of large-scale imports by India and other countries in Asia. Estimates by several analysts pegged the amount of Indian imports to range from 1.5 million to 3.5 million, even 4.5 million, tonnes.
Sugar made a brief attempt to stay near unchanged, but the weight of profit-taking gradually eroded values - traders. Technicians put resistance in the May contract at 14 cents, with 15 cents looming ahead. They said support in May should now be at 13.30/35 cents, then 13 cents.
Volume traded Thursday in the No 11 sugar market hit 136,926 lots versus the previous 82,886 - exchange data. Open interest for No 11 sugar market at 671,508 lots as of March 19, from the prior tally of 646,534 contracts. The domestic No 14 sugar contract showed the May contract up 0.31 cent at 19.55 cents at 2:04 pm volume on Thursday in the No 14 market amounted to 141 lots - exchange data.