December 11, 2007

South Africa corn futures end limit up

South African corn futures rose by the daily maximum on Monday (December 10, 2007), snapping a six-day losing streak as traders realized that the selling may have been overdone.

"There was an upward momentum this morning on technical factors and talk that the selling over the past week might have been overdone," a Free State- based trader said.

The March white corn contract, the most traded, rose 45 rand - the allowable daily trading limit - to 1,653 rand a tonne. July white corn gained by the same margin to 1,422 rand.

Traders said the fundamentals remained too weak to support any significant movement, with good weather conditions expected to help farmers wrap up planting this week.

"Planting conditions are very good and there are no real worries that recent rains might delay plantings," the trader said.

South Africa plans to plant 2.75 million hectares of corn, which could yield at least 10 million tonnes since most traders expect each hectare to yield up to four tonnes.

Shortly before the local market closed, the rand was bid at 6.68 to the dollar from its overnight close of 6.69.

1 rand = US$0.150 (Dec. 11)