Wheat Pares Weekly Loss After Ukraine Attack Briefly Shut Russian Port
(Bloomberg) -- Wheat futures rose more than 4%, paring a weekly loss, after an attack forced a major Russian grain-shipping hub to temporarily close.
Traffic at the Novorossiysk port was halted for several hours on Friday after a Ukrainian drone attack on a naval vessel. The overnight assault was repelled without damage to port facilities, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
Read more: Ukraine Attack on Russian Ship Disrupts Commodity-Export Hub.
Although the closure was short-lived, escalating war added to uncertainty over Black Sea trade flows in the midst of this year's harvests. Russia pulled out of a deal last month that had established a safe corridor for grain shipments from three Ukrainian ports.
Futures also got a bump from India's rare move to consider abolishing an import tax, which could see the world's second-largest wheat producer bringing in more overseas supply. The last time the nation imported a significant amount of wheat was in the 2017-18 season.
Read more: India Considers Scrapping Wheat Import Tax to Cool Prices
Friday's gains are unlikely to prevent wheat from posting the first weekly loss in over a month. “Wheat prices have relinquished some of their gains this week as markets weighed the damaged Ukrainian grain supplies and the Russian surplus to satisfy the global demand,” Jacqueline Holland, an analyst at Farm Futures, said in a phone interview.
Chicago futures climbed as much as 4.3%, before paring the advance. Paris wheat also rose to trade steady on the week.
--With assistance from Ben Sharples, Pratik Parija and Siddhartha Singh.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.
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