NEW YORK, April 6: CSCE raw sugar futures finished firmer Friday on renewed speculative buying, but prices remained rangebound after locals reversed course and ditched positions ahead of the weekend, dealers said.

It was mainly spec buying, it looked like, said Michael McDougall, senior vice president at FIMAT USA’s Latin American desk. We thought initially it might have been Russian-based. Russia is apparently talking about extending their quota.

A senior Russian government official said this week Russia was considering raising its quota for raw cane sugar imports in 2003 from this year’s level of 3.65 million tonnes, but he did not say by how much. Russia is a top consumer of raw sugar.

CSCE May sugar finished 0.08 cent firmer at 5.70 cents a lb after trading 5.78 to 5.60 cents. July gained 0.07 to 5.16 cents and the deferred delivery months ended 0.01-0.06 cent firmer.

Prices were able to climb as leading producer Brazil continued to hold off on selling because of concerns over bad weather affecting the harvesting of its sugar crop, McDougall said.

Brazilians, because of weather worries, have already sold what they think they’re going to have, he said, adding, What Russia is doing is fixing purchase prices in futures for sugar that is already bought and probably already sitting in ports.—Reuters