Starting broadly unchanged the market soon found some supportive buying to pull the front end of the board upwards over the first couple of hours. There remain few resting orders as we continue to move along within the same trading band, however a little late morning selling did appear to drop prices back until buying resumed ahead of the US morning. With the index fund roll now concluded volume has returned to minimal levels, and this allowed values to flit across the range through the afternoon with most traders stood aside, waiting for some news to develop which may provide more meaningful direction. New highs were recorded at 19.98 though this still sat well beneath yesterdays mark and in keeping with the apathy that surrounded the session there never seemed any realistic prospect that it would not remain an inside day for the chart. There was some spec interest for the close which forced a new high at 20.04 with settlement reached at 20.00, positive action as they look to dress the market and build a move though still insufficient to prevent an inside day leaving plenty of work still to do.
As May’23 begins its tenure at the front of the board with some solid morning gains, quickly moving back up through the range and reaching $568.00 to recover all of yesterday’s losses. The gains came despite a lack of news from either sugar or the wider macro and once achieved things settled down with prices consolidating quietly to the upper end of the range. The flat price rally was also bringing strength to nearby spread values with May/Aug’23 trading as wide as $18.00, and the gains for both continued with prices edging along comfortably into the afternoon. New session highs were recorded at $569.00 without generating any real reaction, and as interest waned so prices simply continued along the same path for a few more hours. Some spec interest returned to the environment just ahead of the close which ensured a strong conclusion with May’23 settling at $569.70, though whether this can act as a catalyst to break from the range remains to be seen. The March’23 delivery notice showed that 3,819 lots (190,950mt) was tendered, all Indian origin.
