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CBOT rice ends narrowly mixed and seeks direction

CHICAGO: Rough rice futures at the Chicago Board of Trade closed narrowly mixed on Thursday as the market sought direction amid large stocks of rice in the US and elsewhere, traders said.

Rice closed 2 cents per cwt higher to 3 lower, with March down 1-1/2 at $5.44-1/2. May was down 1 cent at $5.69.

"It's just going nowhere right now because there's too much rice around and the exports weren't all that great either," a trader said.

USDA's weekly export sales report Thursday showed net export sales of US rice during the week ended March 2 at 34,400 tonnes, 24 percent above the previous week but 37 percent below the four-week average.

Traders said commercial activity in rice futures has been light and on both sides of the market. Term Commodities was a late buyer of March but an early seller of new crop, the traders said.

"There is fairly constant commercial interest (in selling) and that tends to keep locals away from the long side," a trader said.

Rice futures volume was estimated by the CBOT at 250 lots, below the 256 lots traded Wednesday.-Reuters