November 16, 2007

South Africa corn prices rise

South African white corn futures ended a touch higher Thursday (November 15, 2007), buoyed by an overnight rally on the Chicago Board of Trade's corn prices and a weaker rand, traders said.

"The market has not really made any significant moves to either direction. Bullish or bearish news flow is very thin," one trader said.

The near-dated December white corn ended 11 rand firmer at 1,896 rand a tonne and July white corn edged down 2 rand at 1,538 rand a tonne.

Sunflower, which has been gaining on supply crunch concerns and increased demand for grain-based fuels, continued its strong run. December sunflower added 10 rand to 4,625 rand.

Shortly after the market closed, the rand was bid at 6.65 to the dollar from an overnight close of 6.59.