Ag Stock Winners: Archer-Daniels

Suffering from a severe drought, Russia bans the export of grain, sending agricultural commodities prices soaring --- along with the stocks of the companies that help produce them.

Author:
Publish date:: Aug 5, 2010 1:33 PM EDT

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Archer-Daniels Midland (ADM) - Get Report shares surged by more than 5% in hectic trading Thursday after grain prices skyrocketed on reports from Russia that the drought-stricken nation will bar exports this year.

Wheat futures roared to two-year highs at the Chicago Board of Trade, pushing corn and other grains higher along with it. Russia, the third-largest exporter of wheat in the world, has suffered all summer from extremely hot and dry conditions. The country stands to produce so little of the crop that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin made the announcement Thursday that Russia would temporarily ban exportation of grains.

>>Looking for Green in Fertilizer Stocks

Archer-Daniels Midland, whose main business line is the processing, distribution and sale of grain, saw its shares jump 5.6% in afternoon trading. Volume reached 8 million shares, compared with average daily turnover of about 6 million. Earlier in the session, Archer-Daniels shares touched $30.25. The stock's 52-week high of $33 came in November.

Other agricultural stocks were rising sharply as well Thursday,

adding to a sharp month-long rally in the sector on a variety of bullish crop-supply fundamentals.

Monsanto

(MON)

shares were up 4.3% to $61.95, and

CF Industries

(CF) - Get Report

, scheduled to report quarterly results after the bell Thursday, spiked by about 5% to $86.61.

Among other fertilizer names, shares of

Agrium

(AGU)

were gaining 2.5% following the release of strong second-quarter numbers Wednesday, while