New York sugar closes low

Raw sugar futures ended lower Monday as investors exited positions in the spot contract which is set to expire at the end of the week, brokers said. New York Board of Trade's key October sugar contract slid 0.25 cent or by 2.5 percent to finish the open-outcry session at 9.44 cents per lb, moving from 9.35 to 9.51 cents.
The rest lost from 0.19 to 0.23 cent. The Intercontinental Exchange's NYBOT electronic platform for sugar showed the October contract down 0.22 cent at 9.47 cents at 1:31 pm EDT (1731 GMT). "We're seeing a bit of liquidation tied to expiration (of the July contract) and we will probably see a little bit more of that this week. We also got a little bit ahead of ourselves during the rally last week," a brokerage house dealer said.
Longer-term, analysts feel sugar will have a tough time carving out any further advances because of the excessive supplies hanging over the market. Futures gapped lower at the start to register the day's nadir, recovered when some short-covering took place near the day's low, and then got hit by another round of liquidation going into the close, brokers said.
Most of the running was in switches from investors liquidating positions in July since it will go off the board on Friday. Open interest in the July contract fell 6,513 lots to 59,397 lots as of June 22. July goes off the board on June 29.
Technicians pegged support in the October contract at 9.00 cents, with resistance at 10 cents. Open-outcry volume around noon was at 15,966 lots versus the previous tally of 23,289 lots. Call volume was 8,569 lots and puts 4,220 lots. NYBOT said Friday's screen trade was 75,665 lots and total volume 98,954 lots.
Open interest in the No 11 raw sugar market rose 4,554 lots to 673,890 lots as of June 22. No deals were done in the ethanol market. US domestic sugar prices ended mixed.
The September contract was steady at 21.45 cents per lb while November rose 0.06 cent to 21.10 cents. The rest were flat to 0.05 cent easier. Screen volume traded Friday in the No 14 sugar market hit 52 lots and no lots were traded in the pit. The electronic No 14 sugar market saw the September contract up 0.04 cent at 21.49 cents at 1:31 pm.