India corn futures end down as bird flu spreads

MUMBAI, Dec 16 (Reuters) - India corn futures ended lower as an outbreak of bird flu in the state of West Bengal hit a market already reeling under slow demand, analysts said.

Laboratory tests have now proven a new outbreak of the H5N1 bird-flu virus in the eastern state, where authorities will begin culling operations from Wednesday. [nLF180998]

The news from West Bengal, on the heels of a recent outbreak in Assam, will weigh on the prices of a commodity primarily used as poultry feed.

"The trend for maize is bearish in the medium-term...lack of interest from the export side had anyway hit demand, the bird flu will just worsen it," said an analyst with a Mumbai-based brokerage.

Spot prices in Nizamabad, a major trading hub, fell by more than 1 rupee to 855.95 rupees.

Following are the closing prices of corn futures in rupees per 100 kg on the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange Ltd. <0#NMZ:>

Contract Reuters code Price Change in %

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Jan NMZF9 810.5 -0.43

Feb NMZG9 825 -1.20

(Reporting by Nandita Bose; Editing by Rohini Ananthan)