LONDON, March 19:London white sugar futures were mixed amid spread activity and possibly arbitrage in moderately brisk volumes towards midday on Monday. Dealers saw no immediate market impact from a report from merchant Czarnikow saying it expected Indian sugar output to rise by up to 10 per cent in 2007/08 depending on the monsoon this year. India is the world's second biggest sugar producer.

Front-month May was down 10 cents to $344.70 per ton in volume of 1,230 lots having moved from $346.20 to $343.00. August was up $1.00 to $329.80 per ton in volume of 879 lots after trading from $330.00 to $328.60.

Dealers referred to active spread trades and possible Against Actuals (AAs) and arbitrage, with the whites-over-raws premium between the London and New York May contracts holding steady at around $117-117.50.

A lot of options are going through, and we've seen May-August switches, possibly AAs and possibly arbitrage, one trader said, referring to trade against the NYBOT electronic raw sugar futures market.

During the 2006/07 season Czarnikow forecast Indian output rising to 24.9 million tons, a new production record and almost double the 12.7 million tons produced two seasons ago. While estimates for this season's crop have continued to be revised upwards, Czarnikow's forecast for exports remained unchanged at 1.5 million tons for 2006/07.—Reuters