CHICAGO: Chicago Board of Trade corn futures ended mostly higher on Wednesday, with the front three contracts gaining against back months as fresh export demand fed worries about tightening global supplies, traders said.

CBOT March corn settled up 1-3/4 cents at $5.34 per bushel after reaching $5.43-3/4, a life-of-contract top and the highest price in a continuous chart of the most-active contract since June 2013.

The deferred September and December contracts settled lower, however.

The US Department of Agriculture confirmed private sales of 680,000 tonnes of US corn to China, following sales of 1.36 million tonnes to China announced a day earlier.

Ahead of Thursday’s weekly USDA export sales report, traders expected the government to report US corn export sales in the week ended Jan. 21 at 900,000 to 1.6 million tonnes.