Chicago Board of Trade rough rice futures ended higher on Tuesday on speculative buying of old-crop May and light commercial buying of new-crop contracts, traders said.
Expectations that the US Department of Agriculture would raise the weekly world market price for long grain rough rice, following a sharp rally in Asian rice prices, also underpinned CBOT futures trade, they said.
After the CBOT market closed, the USDA announced a gain of 21 cents per cwt in the weekly price, to $4.83 per cwt.
CBOT rough rice settled up 9 to 13 cents per cwt, with March up 12 cents at $10.08 per cwt and May up 12-1/2 cents at $10.26-1/2.
"Trade was slow, and it seemed to be a (speculator) induced rally," one CBOT rice trader said. "There were buy stops above the $10.15 level in May to the day's highs."
Man Financial bought new-crop September, November and January, he added.
CBOT rough rice estimated volume on Tuesday was 308 contracts, compared with Monday's volume of 389 lots. Options trade totalled 171 lots.

Copyright Reuters, 2004

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