ChiniMandi, Mumbai: Thursday 23rd April 2020
Domestic Market: The demand has been quite poor. Sugar millers are striving to sell the allocated quota for the month of April 2020.
Maharashtra: S/30 Sugar rates are Rs.3040 to Rs.3100/Qntl.
South Karnataka: S/30 rates are Rs.3260 to 3300 whereas M/30 rates are Rs.3280 to 3350/Qntl.
Uttar Pradesh: The rates for M/30 rates are Rs.3100 to Rs.3130/Qntl.
Gujarat: The rates for New S/30 are Rs.3150 whereas M/30 are at 3230/Qntl.
Tamil Nadu: S/30 Sugar rates are Rs.3350 to Rs.3450 whereas M/30 rates are Rs.3400 to 3450.
International: According to reports, sugar prices on Wednesday closed steady to higher on some short-covering after recent losses. Jul NY sugar on Tuesday sank to at a contract low and London sugar fell to a 7-month low. The nearest-futures May NY sugar contract on Tuesday sank to an 11-3/4 year nearest-futures low. Wednesday’s 20% rally in crude oil prices has sparked some short-covering support in sugar futures.
The collapse early this week in crude oil prices has been a major bearish factor for sugar prices. Weaker crude oil prices undercut ethanol prices and may prompt Brazil’s sugar mills to divert more cane crushing toward sugar production rather than ethanol production.
Another negative for sugar is the persistent weakness in the Brazilian real. The real on Wednesday dropped -1.45% against the dollar and posted a new record low of 5.4129 reals/USD. A weaker real is bearish for sugar since it encourages export selling by Brazil’s sugar producers.
Sugar prices continue to be undercut by concern about weaker sugar demand due to the coronavirus pandemic. Researcher Czarnikow on Mar 24 cut its global sugar consumption estimate for this year by -2.0 MMT, citing a collapse in out-of-home food and drink consumption due to the closure of restaurants because of the coronavirus pandemic.
London White Sugar front month contract is trading at $325.90/tn whereas US Sugar front month contract is trading at 9.92/lb at the time of writing this update.
Currency, Commodity & Indian Indices:
The rupee traded against the US dollar at 76.106 whereas USD traded with BRL at 5.4583, Crude futures traded at Rs.1224, Crude WTI traded at $15.58. Indices ended in the green, Sensex closed 483.53 points higher at 31,863.08. Similarly, Nifty ended 126.60 points higher at 9,313.90.
Sugar prices continue to be undercut by concern about weaker sugar demand due to the coronavirus pandemic.