Raw sugar futures finished with small losses Tuesday as the market consolidated while the trade mulled if the sweetener will rally anew on bullish fundamentals in the weeks ahead, analysts said. The key October raw sugar contract fell 0.05 cent to end at 21.78 cents per lb.
It moved from 21.45 to 22.14 cents. October contract volume hit 42,017 lots at 1:52 pm EDT (1752 GMT). March sugar shed 0.15 cent to end at 23.21 cents. Alex Oliveira, senior sugar analyst for Newedge USA, said the market ran into some pressure from speculative sales and profit-taking.
But he said the tone was quiet. Meager annual monsoon rains have pushed India to the brink of drought, hitting cane production. The catalyst for the rally are expectations of hefty imports by India, the world's No 1 consumer of sugar, along with offtake from other countries like the United States.
Pakistan said it will import 300,000 tonnes of raw sugar in the months ahead, the office of the Prime Minister said. Separately, Australian sugar production is likely to rise by less than 10 percent in 2010/11 despite the surge in prices because of the scarcity of farm land and a lack of investment.
Technicians put resistance in October delivery at 24 and 25 cents, with support pegged at 21 and 20 cents. Volume traded Monday in the No 11 sugar market declined to 112,907 lots from the prior 120,212 lots - exchange data. Open interest in the No 11 sugar market was at 840,434 lots as of August 17 versus the previous 844,224 contracts - exchange data.