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CSCE sugar settles tad up, spreads featured

NEW YORK: CSCE sugar futures closed with only modest gains on Thursday after another range-bound session marked by spreads, local interest and steady origin pricing atop the market.

"Most of the volume today were spreads. Take the locals and the spreads out of this market and you got nothing today," a floor broker said.

May sugar ended up 0.04 cent at 5.16 cents a lb after trading 5.21-5.13 cents. July inched up 0.01 to 5.23 and October gained 0.02 to 5.65 cents. The rest were 0.04 cent firmer each, except for October 2001 which lost 0.02 to 6.36 cents.

Sugar gapped to near the top of the range at the start on speculator buying and spreads, but was again gradually driven back by origins until bouncing off support at the lows, floor brokers said.

"The origins capped it at 5.20 (cents) in May. It did a slow fade and we just sat there for the entire day," a dealer said.

Some light private physical business was reported to have been done, but details were scanty, traders said.

Analysts expect sugar to try to continue to working its way higher, but the going will likely remain exceedingly slow.

"We're just getting up in increments and there is still a lot of origin pricing to be done so I would not get my hopes up," one said.

On a technical basis, dealers put short-term resistance in May sugar at the 20-day moving average of 5.18 cents. Then, there is the 40-day moving average at 5.41 cents and all the way up to 5.50 cents, the area from which the market broke down recently.

They said support should be at 5.00 cents, 4.90, the contract low of 4.84 cents, and then 4.50 cents.

Estimated volume was 12,994 lots, against the previous estimated volume of 23,706 lots.

Call volume touched an estimated 1,893 lots while put volume hit an estimated 1,313 lots.

The CSCE is a subsidiary of the New York Board of Trade.-Reuters