South African maize futures ended generally slightly firmer on Wednesday, supported by the weaker rand/US dollar exchange rate.
The local unit fell to 7.83 to the greenback in the session, from 7.73 on Tuesday.
The May 2012 white maize contract dipped R2 to R2,325 per ton, July 2012 but white maize gained R15 to R2,265 per ton, and September 2012 white maize lifted R26.20 to R2,281.20 per ton, according to preliminary I-Net Bridge data.
The May 2012 yellow maize contract was up R17 to R2,215 per ton, while the July 2012 yellow maize contract added R22 to R2,192 per ton and the September 2012 yellow maize contract edged up R5 to R2,195 per ton.
The May wheat contract was up R29 to R2,760 per ton, July wheat rose R26 to R2,812 per ton, while the September 2012 wheat contract was unchanged at R2,790 per ton.
“Overall, it's been a relatively quite session, with market players unwilling to take strong positions ahead of the Easter weekend,” said Theo Venter, a trader at agribusiness Senwes.
Meanwhile, the US corn futures jumped to a two-week high on Tuesday, fuelled by investors continuing to take a bullish stance in the market on fears of tight supplies, Dow Jones Newswires reported.
“Corn bulls are still energised by Friday's friendly grain-stocks report that showed corn inventories were smaller than industry analysts had anticipated,” said Aaron Curtis, commodity risk consultant with MID-CO Commodities in Bloomington, Ill.
The stocks report underpinned the nearby May contract, as investors worry about inventories running short by the end of summer, particularly with the uncertainty that looms ahead of the 2012 US planting season.
Investor buying was also fuelled by trader attitudes that corn supplies may be even tighter than government forecasters are currently estimating.
CBOT May corn futures, which is the most actively traded, ended up 3 1/4 cents at $6.58 1/4 per bushel. The contract is up 9% in the past three days. - I-Net Bridge