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CSCE sugar ends a tad higher on large trade buying

NEW YORK: CSCE sugar futures closed slightly firmer amid good trade buying and local selling activity, aquiring a quiet equilibrium in Wednesday's session.

"The market has done most of its falling-off from the 6.00 cent level," said Ann Prendergast, softs analyst with Refco Inc.

March sugar SBH0 rose 0.04 cent to close at 5.81 cents per lb, trading between 5.90 cents and 5.73 cents. May SBK0 rose 0.03 cent to end at 6.02 cents. July gained 0.05 cent to close at 6.18 cents a lb. Back months ended 0.04 to 0.07 cent firmer.

"The market is fundamentally bearish," Prendergast said. "It's sort of doing this nerve-wracking rally." Dealers said large trade buyers were giving the market some support waiting for Russia to commence buying, which could give the market at least temporary bullish sentiment in the first quarter this year.

Technicians said resistance in March sugar should be at 5.92 and then 5.98 cents. Support should be seen at 5.75 cents and then 5.65 cents.

Estimated final volume reached 11,118 lots compared to Tuesday's official 30,567. Call volume touched 1,993 lots while put volume was estimated at 2,734 lots.

In physical business, at Wednesday's European Union tender a total 59,500 tonnes of white sugar was sold at a maximum rebate of 52.920 euros per 100 kilos, British traders said. Out of this, traders in France received 32,500 tonnes, in the UK 10,000, in Germany 1,000, in Belgium 10,000 and in the Netherlands 6,000 tonnes, they said.

China called for a reduction in the acreage of sugar crops as part of an agriculture restructuring plan that sought to encourage more quality and special purpose crops amid falling prices, Chinese news agency Xinhua said.

In Latvia, total beet sugar production is expected to reach 62,000 to 63,000 tonnes by the end of the processing season in mid-January, almost 10 percent lower than the year before, the agriculture ministry of the Baltic state said Wednesday. The CSCE is a subsidiary of the New York Board of Trade.-Reuters