LONDON: Raw sugar futures were higher on Thursday, extending the prior session’s rebound, with supplies in the 2018/19 season tightened by diminished crop outlooks in the European Union and Thailand.

SUGAR

* March raw sugar was up 0.24 cents, or 1.9 percent, at 13.08 cents per lb at 1242 GMT, after rising to a more than two-week peak of 13.12 cents.

* Dealers said the outlook for sugar production in the European Union had been dented by dry weather while in key exporter Thailand there appeared to be a switch from planting cane to cassava.

* “We seem to have a trend towards the sugar bulls with supportive sugar fundamentals, but with the proviso that next year’s Brazilian sugar mix doesn’t swing as hard away from ethanol as it has towards it this year,” said Tom Kujawa, co-head of the softs department at Sucden Financial.

* Dealers noted weak energy prices could make it less attractive to use cane to make ethanol rather than sugar.

* Oil fell on Thursday, bringing losses for the month so far to 23 percent, marking its largest one-month fall since the depths of the financial crisis in 2008.

* March white sugar rose $3.10, or 0.9 percent, to $350.50 a tonne.