US open-outcry cocoa ended firm on Monday, after touching a one-month high on technical support while some speculators kept buying on talk about concern for the upcoming main crop out of West Africa, traders said. "I think it's more technical than anything else," one cocoa trader said, adding the current path of least resistance is higher.
The ICE open-outcry benchmark December contract closed $27 higher at $1,864 per tonne, with trades spanning $1,847 to $1,885. The session high was last seen August 16 on the electronic platform. The rest ranged from $15 to $26. On the electronic platform, the December contract was $28 higher at $1,865 at 12:59 pm EDT (1659 GMT), moving from $1,819 to $1,884.
The rest ranged from $22 to $43 higher. Black pod has been reported in West Africa, following significant rainfall, but questions remain about the fungal disease's impact on the upcoming 2007/08 main crop. In London, the December contract finished up 12 pounds at 979 pounds per tonne, with trades spanning 955 to 988.
ICE estimated cocoa open-outcry volume around noon at 1,060 lots, compared to the 733 lots that traded in the pit on Friday when light 5,616 contracts traded on the ICE screen.
Speculators increased their net long position to 18,245 lots in the week to September 11, from 15,691 the previous week, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said on Friday. In related news, United Nations peacekeepers in Ivory Coast have finished dismantling a buffer zone separating government troops from rebels who seized the country's north in a 2002-2003 civil war, the world body said on Saturday.
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