New York sugar sags to mixed close

Raw sugar futures settled mixed on Wednesday after speculative sales blunted advance and a lack of leads may keep the sweetener pinned in a band for now, brokers said. The New York Board of Trade's July raw sugar contract shed 0.07 cent to end at 8.93 cents per lb., trading from 8.86 to 9.20 cents. Key October sugars rose 0.03 to 9.47 cents.
The rest ranged from up 0.04 cent to 0.02 cent lower. The IntercontinentalExchange's NYBOT electronic market for sugar showed the July contract down 0.05 cent to 8.95 cents at 1:21 pm. "The trade got it up, but then it stalled and the locals who went along for the ride got out. The roll is almost done and unless we get some news, we could be hanging around here for a while," a long-time floor analyst said.
Any surge in sugar would need to contend with a glut that will be caused by a record crop in leading grower Brazil and a large cane harvest in top consumer India, analysts said. Several feel sugar prices could ease to 8.00 cents although a steady stream of orders seems to have propped up values over 9.00 cents, basis the now benchmark October contract.
Some switch trade was still being done from players completing the transfer of positions out of the spot contract. Open interest in the July contract fell 9,532 lots to 84,941 lots as of June 19. July goes off the board on June 29. "You have seven sessions left and the way it is behaving, we should have a small delivery on this one unless something changes in the spreads," one said.
Technicians pegged support in the October contract at 9.20 and 9.00 cents, with resistance at 10 cents. Open-outcry volume around noon was at 16,189 lots, from the previous tally of 27,068 lots. Call volume was 14,580 lots and puts 10,094 lots. NYBOT said on Tuesday's screen trade were 106,684 lots and total volume 133,752 lots. Open interest in the No 11 raw sugar market dropped 10,752 lots to 678,521 lots as of June 19. Ethanol futures were unthreaded.
US domestic sugar prices ended mixed. The September contract rose 0.17 to 21.50 cents per lb. while November eased 0.05 to 21.06 cents. The rest were flat to 0.03 cent lower. Screen volume traded on Tuesday in the No 14 sugar market hit 145 lots and no lots were traded in the pit. The electronic No 14 sugar market saw the September contract 0.12 cent higher at 21.45 cents at 1:22 pm.