CANBERRA: Chicago wheat futures rose on Monday as concerns over production in the United States and France triggered short-covering, lifting prices from last week’s four-month low.

Soybean and corn futures also gained but both remained near four-year lows as favourable crop weather in the US Midwest supports expectations of plentiful harvests. The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was up 1.2% at $5.49 a bushel by 0515 GMT after falling to $5.25 on July 16.

CBOT soybeans rose 1.6% to $10.52-1/2 a bushel, close to last week’s low of $10.32, and corn gained 1.1% to $4.09-1/4 a bushel, near last month’s low of $4.

Plentiful supply has seen speculators build large net short positions in all three contracts, leaving them vulnerable to short-covering. “The wheat market got sold too hard and is recovering some of that sell-off,” said Ole Houe at IKON Commodities in Sydney, pointing to uncertainty about production in Europe and Russia as the trigger for the price bounce.

The condition of French soft wheat crops fell sharply last week to an eight-year low, with harvesting well behind the usual pace, data from farm office FranceAgriMer showed.