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CBOT rice ends higher in technical recovery

CHICAGO: Rough rice futures at the Chicago Board of Trade closed higher on Wednesday in a technical recovery from Tuesday's sharp declines.

CBOT rice settled 4 to 10 cents per hundredweight (cwt) higher, with May up 5 cents at $5.75-1/2.

Futures had slumped 16 to 21-1/2 cents on Tuesday as profit taking early in the session ran into sell stops.

"There was some early selling of about 60 May contracts, half of which was by Refco, in a follow-through from yesterday," a CBOT trader said.

"But the market didn't go down, and this brought in some buying," he said, adding that farmers bought about 20 May contracts in short-covering activity.

Rice futures volume was estimated by the CBOT at 500 lots, compared to 771 traded on Tuesday.-Reuters