Wheat advanced in Chicago on signs of more demand after Russia banned exports because of a drought. Russia’s ban prompted a “surge” in demand for vessels to ship wheat from the U.S. Gulf Coast, New York-based Commodore Research & Consultancy said in a report today. Bangladesh is seeking to buy 50,000 metric tons, according to an Aug. 19 notice of the Directorate General of Food. The “demand side showed improvements in the past couple of weeks, especially for U.S. corn, wheat and soybeans,” said Luke Mathews, a commodity strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Wheat for December delivery gained 8.25 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $7.2025 a bushel at 11:23 a.m. London time on the Chicago Board of Trade. Milling wheat futures for November delivery climbed 1.4 percent to 212.75 euros ($274) a metric ton on NYSE Liffe. Hedge funds and other speculators increased their net-long positions, or bets on higher prices, to a two-year high last week, according to figures from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The net-long position increased 24 percent from a week earlier to 33,443 contracts as of Aug. 17, the highest since Aug. 14, 2007, according to the CFTC. November-delivery soybeans climbed 0.5 percent to $10.085 a bushel and December-delivery corn fell 0.2 percent to $4.355 a bushel. To contact the reporter on this story: Supunnabul Suwannakij in Bangkok at ssuwannakij@bloomberg.net.

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