Friday, 27 March 2015 02:23
NEW YORK/LONDON: Raw sugar futures tested the prior session’s six-year low in thin trade on Thursday, under pressure from a strengthening dollar, abundant supplies and light physical demand, while arabica coffee extended gains.
New York cocoa futures eased, pressured by the weak sterling, and bucking the session’s higher trend in larger commodity markets after Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab allies began air strikes on Yemen.
Raw sugar fell as the dollar strengthened, with traders tracking the slow pace of Chinese buying of out-of-quota sugar.
“There is disappointment that Chinese import licences are being approved slowly,” said Robin Shaw, analyst with broker Marex Spectron. He spoke of high sugar output in growing countries, such as India and Thailand, and abundant stocks.
May raw sugar futures finished down 0.18 cent, or 1.4 percent, at 12.34 cents a lb, after touching a session low of 12.32 cents, just above a six-year low of 12.31 cents hit on Wednesday.
“Today’s weakness is being highlighted by a relative lack of buying as opposed to any pronounced selling, confirmed by light volumes,” said James Cassidy, senior director for the sugar group at Societe Generale in New York. “You’re getting some leftover technical selling. I don’t see producers selling today.”
Producer selling in Brazil has recently weighed on raw sugar prices due to their tumbling real, but the currency has since bounced up from last week’s 12-year low.
May white sugar futures ended down $ 1.30, or 0.4 percent, at $ 363.20 a tonne.
Arabica coffee on ICE extended gains as fundamentals become increasingly bullish after prices jumped nearly 4 percent on Wednesday, buoyed by a forecast for falling supplies in top grower Brazil.
Benchmark May arabica futures settled up 0.3 cent, or 0.2 percent, at $ 1.4025 per lb.
May robusta coffee finished flat at $ 1,816 a tonne.
Cocoa edged down, with New York May settling down $ 26, or 0.9 percent, at $ 2,760 a tonne, while London May cocoa fell 11 pounds, or 0.6 percent, to end at 1,940 pounds a tonne.
Copyright Reuters, 2015
