Maize quoted higher even as arrivals fell, mainly because demand picked up at lower price levels. The decline in arrivals also supported the upward movement in prices.

Demand rose slightly as prices softened over the past few weeks, but the prices will edge down as feed manufacturers have cut down their purchases massively.

In Nizamabad, arrivals were pegged at 450-500 bags (1 bag = 100 kg), about 50-100 bags lower than previous arrilval, while in Davangere, arrivals were pegged steady at 600-650 bags.

Corn futures ended the Thursday session with most contracts 3 to 4 3/4 cents higher, with support coming from seeming progress on the Trade War front.

The weekly update to the EIA report showed production last week was down 33,000 barrels per day and back below 1 million bpd to 996,000.

Even with the lower production, ethanol stocks were up 447,000 barrels to 23.913 million barrels. The USDA’s Ag Outlook Forum showed forecast 2019 corn acreage at 92 million acres, which would be 2.9 million larger than last year.

Analysts are expecting Friday’s Export Sales report to show 4-7 MMT in old crop sales and 50,000-250,000 MT in new crop bookings in the weeks of Jan 10-Feb 14.