"There was no follow-through from the poor technical settlement last night," one rice trader said. November rice settled 8 cents higher at $7.14, above its 50-day moving average of $7.09 after closing below that level on Wednesday.
The January contract closed 9 cents up at $7.42. US weekly rice export sales were disappointing, traders said. The US Agriculture Department said 88,200 tonnes of US rice were sold for export last week, 25 percent above the previous week. But only 55,600 tonnes was long grain rice. Most of the trade was in the spreads as firms continued to roll their November positions into the deferred contracts before the start of the delivery period on Monday.
An estimated 1,705-rice future and 20 options traded. That compared to 2,107 contracts that traded on Wednesday. The November-January spread traded at 28-1/2 cents and November-March traded at 53 cents.
ADM Investor Services was featured trading 150 to 200 March-November spreads, floor traders said.