London cocoa moves up

Robust demand from industry supported Liffe cocoa futures on Wednesday although prices ended towards the lower end of the day's range, floor sources said. Traders attributed the late trend to a view that the strike by farmers in Ivory Coast would end soon, while others put it down to hedging from Ghana and Nigeria.
Front-month December ended at 834 pounds a tonne, up four pounds and near the middle of a wide 829-849 range on turnover of 2,569 lots.
March settled at 856 pounds, up five. The second-month position also widened its range from the previous two sessions, trading between 850 and 871, compared with a seven-pound range on Tuesday. Volume stood at 2,482 lots while a total of 6,980 traded.
"There is a certain level of demand, industry is happy to be picking it up," said a trader. "A fund in New York sold about 3,000 lots today and yet the market still held up."
NYBOT December was up $7 at $1,462 a tonne at London's close.
COFFEE CLOSES UP: London coffee futures ended Wednesday a touch stronger and traders said positive signals in New York could take the market higher in coming days.
"Strength in New York on the back of roaster buying makes the outlook for London look a bit more positive," said one floor source.
Liffe's second-month January advanced $4 to settle at $587 a tonne after trading between $585 and $595 on turnover of 2,266 lots from a total of 3,971.
The market was still recovering after Friday's seven-percent dive, which took prices to 26-month continuation low.
A $3 gain left November at $560 a tonne following trade between $554 and $563 and volume of 474 lots.
A widening of the spread between November-January was attributed by traders and analysts to news that Liffe has terminated the nominated warehouse status of Molenbergnatie NV in Antwerp with effect from December 31.
The exchange said it suspended the grading status of 258 lots of robusta coffee pending supervised resampling and regrading. The warehouse had 6,805 lots of robusta when certified stocks were published at the end of last month.
Global coffee production in 2004/05 may increase to 117.9 million 60-kg bags from 107.3 million the previous year, rebounding above consumption thanks to higher Brazilian output, German analyst F.O. Licht said on Wednesday.