May sugar lose the same to 9.24 cents. The rest retreated from 0.09 to 0.19 cent. "The funds hammered it on spreads, but the trade paid up a little bit at the bottom and you'd think some of that was probably cash business being done by those (trading) houses," a long-time floor broker said.
"We'll probably slip some more given the way we closed, but there's good support underneath this thing," the broker added. Fundamentally, a supply deficit and robust demand led by India and Pakistan has propped up futures.
Once the March contract fell below its recent low of 8.98 cents, automatic sell orders were touched off and accelerated the decline, dealers said.
Most analysts took note of news that Pakistan has booked around 315,000 tonnes of sugar after a duty cut, but some wondered if some of the 100,000 tonnes they were looking for were hedged in the market.
On switches, the open interest in March continued to be liquidated in a fairly orderly manner. Open interest in the March contract sank 10,580 lots to 59,806 contracts as of February 15.
March is due to expiring on February 28. Technicians see resistance in the March contract at 8.98 and 9.03 cents. Support was at 8.80 and down to 8.50 cents. Volume traded just before the market closed for the day stood at 77,422 lots, versus the prior 63,096 lots.
Call volume hit 8,563 lots and puts came to 8,591 contracts. Open interest in the No 11 sugar market climbed 4,915 lots to 389,035 contracts as of February 15. Ethanol futures closed flat with the February contract ending at 95 cents a gallon.
US domestic sugar futures finished mixed on Wednesday. May was flat at 20.25 cents a lb while July rose 0.01 to 20.56 cents. The rest were flat or 0.01 cent easier. Volume traded before the market shut hit 108 lots, from 314 lots previously.