Tuesday, 31 March 2015 20:16
LONDON: Raw sugar on ICE recovered on Tuesday from the lowest level in more than six years, while cocoa traded around seven-week lows, weighed by favourable weather before the start of West African mid crops.
Activity in the second day of trading of two new euro-based cocoa contracts was again quiet.
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Arabica coffee futures corrected higher after a four percent fall on chart-based pressure in the prior session.
Raw sugar futures on ICE fell to 11.91 cents a lb in early trading, the lowest level since January 2009, and later gained ground to trade up 0.09 cents or 0.8 percent at 12.08 cents a lb at 1311 GMT.
Nick Penney, a senior trader with Sucden Financial, said a firmer dollar capped sugar futures prices.
“The macro picture does not favour commodities in general as a strong dollar piles on export pressure and encourages production,” Penney said.
May white sugar traded up $ 0.70, or 0.2 percent, at $ 358.20 a tonne.
Cocoa dealers said favourable weather in West African growing regions augured well for mid crops, capping prices.
New York May cocoa was up $ 3, or 0.1 percent, at $ 2,698 a tonne in volume of 6,770 lots.
London May cocoa was down 6 pounds, or 0.3 percent, at 1,897 pounds a tonne in volume of 4,386 lots.
In the new CME and ICE euro-based cocoa contracts, which launched on Monday, trade of the first 15 lots opened in the ICE contract on Tuesday after no trades the previous day.
In the new CME contract, 40 lots traded on Tuesday, after trading volumes of 240 lots on Monday.
“So far it’s 1-0 to the CME, but there is a long way to go,” one London-based cocoa futures dealer said.
“CME has to maintain that (Monday’s) volume. It’s struggling already.”
May arabica was up 1.75 cents, or 1.3 percent, at $ 1.3410 per lb.
“Trading volumes have dropped in recent sessions as the market looks for direction and on the downside, further selling pressure could now test support towards $ 1.33 (a lb),” said Kash Kamal, senior research analyst with Sucden Financial.
May robusta coffee traded down $ 3, or 0.2 percent, at $ 1,719 a tonne.
Copyright Reuters, 2015
