Sugar prices tumbled on Wednesday, extending the slide to a second session following reports on Tuesday suggesting a better-than-expected outlook for India's production this season.
ICE May raw sugar fell 5 per cent to 19.30 cents a pound while Liffe May white sugar dropped 4.8 per cent to $528.5 a tonne.
Raw sugar prices have fallen 36.5 per cent since reaching a 29-year high of 30.40 cents a pound at the start of February while white sugar prices have sunk 31 per cent since hitting a record $767 a tonne in late January.
Sugar output in India, the world's second-largest producer and biggest global consumer, could reach 16.8m tonnes in the 2009-10 season that runs until September 30, up from an earlier estimate of 16m tonnes, according to the Indian Sugar Mills Association.
This would imply an increase of 4.3 per cent in India's sugar output compared with the 2008-09 season, which was affected by poor monsoon rains.
Some traders, however, had been betting that India's production might drop below 15m tonnes this year, which would have raised its need for imports.
India could still need to import about 6m tonnes this year to satisfy domestic consumption requirements.
Crude oil prices made modest gains ahead of the latest US weekly inventories data.
Nymex April West Texas Intermediate rose 20 cents to $81.69 a barrel while ICE April Brent added 32 cents at $80.23 a barrel.
US crude stocks were expected to have risen by 1.9m barrels last week, according to a poll of analysts by Reuters, with imports of crude oil seen remaining above the key 9m barrels a day mark.
Petrol inventories were expected to have increased for a second successive week, with a rise of 200,000 barrels last week.
Nymex April RBOB unleaded gasoline traded 1.4 cents, or 0.6 per cent, higher at $2.2745 a gallon.
Distillate stocks, including heating oil, were expected to have fallen for a sixth successive week with a drop of 900,000 barrels, following recent heavy snow in north-eastern America.
Nymex March heating oil added 0.9 cents, or 0.4 per cent, at $2.0987 a gallon.
Gold traded at $1,126 a troy ounce after ending Tuesday's session in New York at $1,119.70.
Source :