PARIS: Front-month wheat and rapeseed futures on Euronext set new multi-year highs on Wednesday, as tightening short-term supplies and technical signals fuelled more buying, traders said.
A rally in Chicago wheat, as forecasts of dry weather in part of the US Plains added to recent concerns over frost damage, supported the gains in Paris wheat, while rapeseed was again buoyed by strength across oilseed and vegetable oil markets.
March milling wheat on Paris-based Euronext settled 4.50 euros, or 1.9%, higher at 245.25 euros ($297.83) a tonne, after earlier rising to 246.25 euros, its highest front-month price since May 2013.
The nearby position continued to be supported by market participants covering open positions in the run-up to the contract’s expiry.
May, the most-active position on Euronext wheat, ended 1.4% higher at 232.75 euros a tonne. It earlier climbed to a new one-month high at 233.75 euros after breaching resistance at 230 euros.
Wheat was being underpinned by declining European Union stocks at a time when export levies in Russia were creating uncertainty about global availability.
“Everything in grains is moving higher,” a futures dealer said.
“In wheat, we’ve already got an export programme to execute, and the market is doing its job by making us too expensive for new sales.”
On the physical market, German cash premiums weakened as buyers resisted the rally in futures.
“Firm prices in Paris and Chicago are holding back import demand and the number of new international wheat purchase tenders has been pretty low so far this week,” one German trader said.
Standard bread wheat with 12% protein for March delivery in Hamburg was offered for sale at around 8 euros over Paris May down from 9.5 euros.
A ship was set to load about 30,000 tonnes of German wheat for Algeria in coming days, the fourth such loading this month.
May rapeseed on Euronext settled 2.6% higher at 484.50 euros, after touching 486.00 euros in earlier trade, the highest front-month price since April 2013.
New-crop August rapeseed rose by as much as 1.7% to a contract high of 431.50 euros.