January 4, 2008

South African corn ends down on better weather outlook

South African white corn futures dropped Thursday, reversing earlier gains, after forecasters predicted rains on areas that were beginning to get dry.

The key white corn contract for July delivery fell 29 rand to 1,595 rand a tonne, and the March white corn contract gave up 20 rand to 1,892 rand per tonne.

"We opened limit up following gains in Chicago but we started pulling back on reports that the weather outlook is starting to improve," one trader said.

The market rose by the daily maximum Wednesday on a combination of a strong run on the Chicago Board of Trade and concerns that some areas on the country's corn triangle were getting dry.

On CBOT's overnight electronic trading platform, March corn was last trading 4 4/8 US cents higher at US$467 and July was up six US cents at 489, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

1 rand = US$0.1461 (Jan. 4)