Sugar mart up on RI hedging

Sugar mart up on RI hedging

LONDON (Reuters): White sugar futures firmed on trade hedging ahead of a rescheduled Indonesian tender, traders said.

"The market's up on Indonesia pre-hedging," said a futures trade manager, noting that CSCE raws firmer close on Monday was also encouraging.

At 1130 GMT, front October was at the morning's high of $253.30 a ton, up 70 cents from Monday's close. Other positions were 60 cents to 30 cents firmer in total volume of 931 lots, of which 439 in October.

Tender details, including quantities have changed several times with 450,000 tons of raws being cited on Monday.

Indonesia's previous tender two weeks ago when it bought 202,000 tons of whites and 30,000 tons of raws also gave the market a lift.

In Jakarta, Indonesian state commodities regulator Bulog will tender for 100,000 tons of white sugar and 400,000 tons of raw today, chairman Beddu Amang said yesterday.

"We are going to buy 100,000 tons of white sugar and 400,000 tons of raw sugar through tender tomorrow," Amang told reporters.

He gave no further details. The tender was originally scheduled for yesterday.

Bulog bought 30,000 tons of raw sugar and 202,000 tons of white sugar in a tender on July 30. The sugar was bought for August, September and October shipment.

Traders were also awaiting the outcome of a Syrian tender on Tuesday to buy 13,000 tons each of whites and raws for September delivery.

March/May 1999 switches were also noted at around $3.50 a ton.

The London daily whites price was marked up 50 cents at $266.80 a ton.