By Carolyn Cui

Sugar prices gained Tuesday, buoyed by a slew of large purchases from Middle East and Africa.

Raw sugar for March delivery rose 0.7% to 20.44 cents a pound on the ICE Futures U.S. exchange.

So far this year, sugar futures have been largely moving in a narrow range between 20 cents and 21.5 cents. "There seems to remain little enthusiasm for buying as the market approaches 21c but equally little enthusiasm for selling below 20c," wrote Michael Liddiard, a London-based analyst at Agrilion Commodity Advisers, in a note.

But in the physical market, trade flows turned active on Tuesday. Newswires reported that Iran bought up to 250,000 tons of Brazilian raw sugar, marking the country's first purchase since the third quarter of last year. Meanwhile, Egypt's state buyer, the Egyptian Sugar and Integrated Industries Company, also bought 50,000 tons of raw sugar in a tender.

While Iran and Egypt are regular buyers in the world's sugar market, the recent purchases suggest that consumption in both countries remains robust and the current price is considered fair.

Some sugar buyers also wanted to secure the supplies before any future price spikes, if India were to lower its import duty on sugar to allow more imports of the sweetener. Falling sugar production in India this year gave rise to such speculations, helping support the world sugar prices.

But so far, the government has been resisting the calls to trim the duty, arguing that domestic supplies and inventories would be enough to help the country scrape by without imports.

In other markets, cocoa for May was up 0.2% to $2,003 a ton, arabica coffee for May added 1.6% to $1.5190 a pound, frozen concentrated orange juice for March lost 0.4% to $1.7550 a pound and May cotton rose 0.4% to 75.80 cents a pound.

Write to Carolyn Cui at carolyn.cui@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 21, 2017 12:37 ET (17:37 GMT)