CHICAGO, Aug 10: Chicago Board of Trade rough rice futures ended firm on Friday after this week’s losses, with floor traders noting technical support had been found after the heavy-volume speculative sales this week.

There was enough bid there to support the market.

Rice futures settled up 1 to 3 cents per hundredweight, with September up 1 cent at $4.02 and November down 1-1/2 cents at $4.26-1/2.

CBOT November rice had hit a 2-1/2 month low of $4.19 per cwt on Thursday, and that level held on Friday. Technical resistance was seen at the 100-day moving average of $4.44 per cwt.

This week’s sell-off had accelerated on Wednesday after a downward 0.35 cent per cwt adjustment by the US Department of Agriculture in the weekly world price to $3.36 per cwt, traders noted.

USDA also lowered its projection for ending 2002/03 US rice stocks to 35.1 million hundredweight from the June USDA estimate of 43.6 million and last year’s 35.8 million.

After Friday’s CBOT close, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission noted that as of Aug. 6, non-commercials were long 1,178 contracts, up 98 lots from the previous week, and short 1,061 contracts, up 94 lots from the previous report.

CBOT rough rice futures volume on Friday was estimated at 398 contracts, compared with 2,163 contracts traded on Thursday. Rice options volume was pegged at 19 lots.—Reuters