September 4, 2007

South Africa's corn futures edge lower

South African white corn futures ended lower Monday (Sep 3), with no direction from the Chicago Board of Trade due to the Labour Day holiday in the US.

December white corn, the most active, ended seven rand lower at 1,860 rand a tonne and September shed 9 rand to 1,814 rand.

The rand, however, slid a bit against the dollar. Shortly after the local grain market closed, the rand was bid at 7.16 per dollar from 7.10.

CBOT corn futures finished higher Friday, unable to maintain early gains based on the rally in wheat to another all-time high. However, corn did finish with modest gains as the market consolidated at month's end, analysts said.

September corn settled 1 1/4 cents higher at US$3.24 per bushel, December gained 1/4 cent to US$3.40 and March finished unchanged at US$3.56.