South African maize futures ended mixed on Tuesday, with nearby March contracts attracting impressive buying interests from market players at the closeout.
Other contracts however edged lower, taking a breather after recent strong gains on continued market concerns about poor rainfall impacting on the 2011-12 crop yields.
“The upside momentum in the maize spot prices is still intact, given that some of the crop yields have been damaged owing to insufficient rainfall,” said Andrew Fletcher, a trader at Unigrain.
The March 2012 white maize contract was up R96 to R2,720 per ton, but May 2012 white maize lost R26 to R2,349 per ton, and July 2012 white maize was up R13.80 to R2,246.80 per ton, according to preliminary I-Net Bridge data.
The March 2012 yellow maize contract climbed R85 to R2,525 per ton, the May 2012 yellow maize contract edged down R15 to R2,225 per ton and the July 2012 yellow maize contract was unchanged at R2,180 per ton.
The March wheat contract was down R26 to R2,673 per ton, May wheat shed R14 to R2,736 per ton and July 2012 wheat contract was down R8 to R2,792 per ton.
Dow Jones Newswires reports that the US wheat futures fell on Monday as Russia said it won't put restrictions on exports of the grain and favourable weather boosted expectations for the size of the next US crop. - I-Net Bridge