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CBOT rice ends higher on buy-stops, commercials

CHICAGO: Rough rice futures at the Chicago Board of Trade closed marginally higher on Thursday on support from commercials and as buy-stops were hit.

CBOT rice settled 1 to 2 cents per hundredweight (cwt) higher, with May up 1 at $5.66.

"Buy stops were hit in the May contract at the $5.65-$5.67 level," a trader said, adding that technical-related buying was seen from commercials.

The trader said ADM Investor Services was a light buyer.

He said weekly US weekly export sales were also supportive. The US Department of Agriculture, in its report released before the market opened, listed exports in the week ended Feb. 24 at 86,900 tonnes, up 39 percent from a week ago.

But the tally was down 17 percent from the four-week average.

In other news, the agricultural attache at the US embassy in Jakarta forecast Indonesian rice production in 2000 at 51 million tonnes, compared with the Indonesian government's projection of 49.11 million.

Rice futures volume was estimated by the CBOT at 400 lots, compared with 671 contracts traded Wednesday.-Reuters