March 4, 2006	Saturday	Safar 3, 1427

LONDON, March 3: London white sugar futures edged up in light trade on local speculative buying towards on Friday as the market awaited the opening of the New York raw sugar futures market, traders said.

Benchmark May was up $4.00 or 0.91 per cent to $441.30 per ton in volume of 376 lots at 1116 GMT, having moved from $443.70 to $438.00.

August was up $5.70 to $439.50 in volume of 33 lots after trading from $439.50 to $436.00.

The interest this morning is coming from locals and small speculators, one trader said.

Traders said the futures market appeared to be consolidating but were divided over which way prices would go in the near term.

Physical offtake appeared to be strong, and the market was focused on how much of the next Brazilian centre-south crop would be allocated to biofuel production, traders and analysts said.—Reuters