CIJENE ŠEĆERA NA BURZI U NEW YORKU

CIJENE ŠEĆERA NA BURZI U NEW YORK-U NEW YORK - Šećer br.11 cijene pri zatvaranju burze 30. listopada 1997. POSLJ OTVA NAJ NAJ ZATVA NAGO EDNJA RANJE VIŠA NIŽA RANJE DBA MAR8 12.28 12.06 12.30 12.03 12.28 12.30 MAY8 12.18 11.99 12.19 11.96 12.17 12.18 JUL8 11.98 11.84 12.00 11.83 11.98 11.98 OCT8 11.88 11.74 11.90 11.74 11.88 11.90 MAR9 11.70 11.58 11.70 11.58 11.69 11.70 MAY9 11.53 11.52 11.53 11.53 11.64 11.65 JUL9 11.50 11.61 11.62 OCT9 CSCE world sugar powers to new contract highs NEW YORK, Oct 30 (Reuters) - CSCE world sugar prices sailed to new contract highs Thursday, buoyed by favorable technical signals and concerns about the Russian beet crop, market sources said. Encouraged by yesterday's breach of key chart resistance, commodity funds bid the market higher from the opening bell. Although persistent selling by producer countries initially kept the rally in check, a speculator-led buying frenzy eventually drove the March contract through 12.15 cents, a key technical objective, and then 12.19 cents, its previous life-of-contract high. The buying spree continued to 12.30 cents, the highest in 16 months based on a weekly continuation chart. Producer-linked selling again briefly pared the gains, but a fresh round of speculative buying lifted the market to the day's highs by the close. March futures settled at 12.30 cents, up 0.30 cent on the day. Second-month May climbed 0.23 cent to 12.18, ending just off a contract high of 12.19 set earlier in the session. Traders said that while there were no new fundamental developments behind today's rally, a growing belief that frost damage to this year's Russian sugarbeet crop will force the country to step up imports added to the bullish tone. With rains and freezing weather bringing the harvest to a virtual halt in some regions, the 1997/98 Russian crop is expected to be one of the smallest in three decades. "There is a lot of talk about problems with the Russian beet crop," one trader said. "The smaller it is, the more they import." But some analysts cautioned that today's move higher appeared to be overdone, with producing nations prepared to sell heavily into any further advance. "I think it's more technically than fundamentally driven," said Merrill Lynch analyst Judith Ganes. "I don't see the market taking off substantially from here." Technically, traders next for resistance to weigh in around 12.50 cents, while support was seen at today's low of 12.03 cents. The day's turnover was a heavy 55,788 lots. 311047 MET oct 97