June 16, 2008

CBOT gains push South African corn higher

South African white corn futures ended higher for a third straight day Friday (June 13, 2008), supported by overnight gains in Chicago and a sharply weaker rand.

The benchmark white corn for July delivery ended 26 rand up at ZAR2,052 a tonne and December white corn was up ZAR39 at ZAR2,207/tonne.

"We could have ended much higher, but there was a bit of profit taking ahead of the weekend," one trader said, adding that sentiment continued to be dominated by concerns of crop failures in the US due to the wet weather.

Shortly before the local market closed, the rand was bid at 8.13 to the dollar from 7.98 at the same time on Thursday.

(US$1=ZAR 8.097)