US Plains HRW Wheat-Basis bids mostly flat amid quiet trade

CHICAGO, April 30 (Reuters) - Spot hard red winter wheat basis bids were flat in the U.S. Plains on Wednesday as rains benefited the area's dry wheat crop in its early growing stages while farmer selling remained slow, dealers said.

• The basis ticked lower at a terminal in Oklahoma. Though the basis fell, the local price remained largely the same as the July futures contract is priced higher than the May contract.

• Trade has remained slow as farmers were hesitant to book sales until they have a better idea of their wheat crop's size, while low futures prices provided little incentive to make sales.

• Market chatter indicated that Chinese buyers had returned to buy foreign wheat this week. In Europe, traders were watching to see if China would turn back to French wheat and further revive France's export outlook after recent interest from Egypt.

• The CME Group will launch a new Black Sea wheat futures contract in June that will track export prices in Romania and Bulgaria, the financial markets operator said on Tuesday.

• K.C. July hard red winter wheat futures KWN25 ended down 1-1/2 cents at $5.29-1/2 per bushel after earlier setting a contract low of $5.27-1/4.

Basis values are quoted against futures in cts/bu:

NOTES:

H = March, K = May, N = July, U = September

Z = December; UNQ = Unquoted bids

0 = Sp Option price; NC = No comparison

= No. 1 12% hard winter wheat, rail bids

= Ordinary protein, rail bids

LINKS:

K.C. HRW wheat protein scales KCBT/SCA

U.S. weekly wheat crop progress US/WHE

U.S. forward basis WHEAT/BASIS

U.S. Midwest cash grain PM GRA/PM

U.S. FOB Gulf Grain GRA/F