London robusta futures opened weaker on light profit-taking on Friday after touching a ten-and-a-half year peak on Thursday, while cocoa could probe fresh four-and-three-quarter year highs. London white sugar futures could fall further due to a lack of physical offtake after a weaker close of ICE raw sugar futures on Thursday.
London robusta coffee futures opened weaker on profit-taking, but could soon probe ten-and-a-half year peaks last touched on Thursday. May was down $17 to $2,198 per tonne in light volume of 402 lots at 0907 GMT. May closed up $23 at $2,215 a tonne on Thursday after touching $2,218, the highest level for the second month since June 1997.
Heavy buying by funds has provided the main driving force behind a sharp rise in prices for both commodities this year. Dealers said industry buyers had initially been reluctant to chase the market higher but had grown increasingly nervous during the last few days.
Kenya's coffee output in 2006/07 (October-September) rose 12.5 percent from a year earlier to 54,340 tonnes, the Coffee Board of Kenya said on Friday, adding that a strong local currency had hurt returns.
London cocoa futures could see profit taking after Thursday's four-and-three-quarter year high, but may soon recover to test new peaks. An early strong advance in cocoa prices on Thursday was tempered in late trade following news that staff at Ivory Coast's Coffee and Cocoa Bourse had suspended a five-day-old strike after winning additional pay.
May cocoa ended four pounds firmer at 1,250 a tonne after peaking at 1,279 pounds on Thursday, the highest level for the second month since April 2003. London white sugar futures risk falling due to a lack of physical offtake, with attention focused on the options expiration of the ICE SPOT March contract.
Dealers said physical demand had largely dried up after last month's advance in prices, and excess supplies may end up being delivered against March futures contracts in London and New York. Dozens of people were injured, some of them seriously, in an explosion at a sugar refinery in the US state of Georgia on Thursday night, local authorities said, adding that no fatalities had been reported yet.
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