NEW YORK, Nov 3: CSCE sugar futures finished slightly easier Friday on mostly local and speculative turnover as public holidays in observance of All Souls’ Day kept some traders sidelined.

Sugar has been supported at 6.50 cents on expectations that it will go back to 7 cents on new (physical) buying. With the holiday in Brazil it looks like the market is in limbo until Monday, said softs analyst Ann Prendergast of Refco, Inc.

CSCE March sugar lost 0.03 cent to finish at 6.63 cents a lb., near the low of the 6.61 to 6.70 session.

May eased 0.05 to settle at 6.41 cents.

The rest of the board retreated 0.05 cent each except for July 2002 which dipped 0.06 cent.

Sugar opened near unchanged and eased in very quiet dealings with speculators and locals liquidating short-term long positions when prices failed to overcome the 6.70 cent level and again when a second attempt stopped short at 6.68 cents, brokers said.

There is some underlying tightness in the cash market, but things are pretty quiet. We could go either way from here, one explained.

Commission houses and speculators continue to look for sugar to rally to 7 or even 7.5 cents but operators expect Brazil, the largest exporter in the world, to be a good seller on a rally.

Analysts say the recent export data on Brazil shows they have been exporting more sugar than expected by the trade.

In fundamental news, German analyst F.O. Licht which forecast world sugar production in 2001/02 at 132.7 million tons, raw value, against global consumption or use of 131.2 million tons.

Projected ending stocks in 2001-02 are 60 million tons compared to 59.8 million in 2000-01.

Technicians with RedTower Research feel traders should watch the 6.65/60 zone for bottom fishing, favoring a bounce back to the 6.80 cents area later.

Chartists pegged support at 6.60 cents and then at 6.50 to 6.43 cents.

Estimated final volume hit 12,677 lots, against the previous count of 10,175 lots. Call volume touched 1,991 lots while put volume stood at 1,664 lots.

US domestic sugar futures finished mostly higher Friday.

Spot January rose 0.03 cent to end to 21.08 cents a lb while March gained 0.04 to 21.24 cents. Back months were 0.08 cent easier to 0.05 cent higher at the close.

Final volume traded came to around 372 lots, against the prior count of 440 lots.—Reuters