PARIS: Euronext wheat ended slightly lower on Wednesday as the market sought footing after the previous session’s slide, while traders weighed the harvest progress in France and news from war-torn Ukraine.
Rapeseed extended a slide to a fresh four-month low following losses in vegetable oil and mineral oil markets.
September milling wheat on Paris-based Euronext settled 0.5% lower at 370.50 euros ($391.84) a tonne.
It earlier fell to a near two-month low at 366.75, before climbing as high as 381.50 euros.
A technical bounce was fuelled by news that Russian missile strikes on the Ukrainian Black Sea port city of Mykolaiv had hit grain terminals operated by global merchants Bunge and Viterrra.
However, continuing talks between Turkey and Russia over a shipping corridor from Ukraine kept attention on the eventuality of Ukrainian grain exports accelerating.
A rebound in Chicago wheat, which regained some of its near 6% drop from Tuesday, lent support to Euronext but this was countered by a sharp rise in the euro, dealers said.
In France, an earlier than usual start to soft wheat harvesting in southern zones was showing weak yields but good quality, notably in protein content, traders said.
There was concern that a heatwave last week may have added to drought stress on still-developing crops further north.
“The impact is going to be very varied depending on the zone,” said Philippe Heusele, secretary general of wheat growers group AGPB, adding a clearer picture should emerge in about two weeks.
Traders were also assessing renewed demand from importers.
Algeria reportedly bought around 600,000 tonnes of wheat on Tuesday, Tunisia on Wednesday booked around 100,000 tonnes while Pakistan issued a tender seeking 500,000 tonnes.
In rapeseed, August futures settled down 3.5% at 694.75 euros a tonne, after earlier hitting a lowest front-month price since Feb. 15 at 687.00 euros.
A fresh plunge for palm oil futures and a sharp drop for mineral oil reinforced concern about weak demand for oilseed demand, dealers said.
Financial investors lifted their net long position in Euronext’s wheat futures and options last week and expanded their net short position in rapeseed, data published by Euronext showed.
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