Chicago Board of Trade wheat futures closed higher on Thursday after a choppy session, lifted by better-than-expected weekly US export sales data, traders said. CBOT March wheat settled up 2-1/2 cents at $4.27 per bushel. K.C. March hard red winter wheat ended up 2-1/2 cents at $4.40-1/4 a bushel and MGEX March spring wheat rose 9-1/4 cents at $5.66-3/4.
MGEX spring wheat gained relative to the other two markets on good demand for high-protein milling wheat. The US Department of Agriculture's weekly export sales report showed old-crop wheat sales at 853,400 tonnes, a marketing year high that easily topped trade expectations for 200,000 to 400,000 tonnes.
Egypt's state grain buyer, the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), said it bought 410,000 tonnes of Russian wheat in a tender. A deal struck in October for Syria to buy 1 million tonnes of wheat from its ally Russia has not been fulfilled and may never be, Syrian and Russian government sources said.