London cocoa futures ended barely changed on Friday as industry buying helped resist light pressure from speculators, dealers said.
Liffe's benchmark December ended at 854 pounds a tonne, up three pounds after turnover of 3,431 lots from a total of 4,651 and an 847-864 range.
"There's some industry buying on a scale-down basis...and still some liquidation by smaller funds," said one trader.
He also noted arbitrage activity with participants selling London futures to buy New York contracts and about 2300 Against Actuals (AAs) in total.
Traders are awaiting direction from funds, whose recent sell-off has eased this week.
"Funds are still meant to be long but they're more comfortable," the first trader said.
Some in the market say pressure from origin sales once Ivory Coast's new harvest starts in October could drive prices through sell-stops and trigger renewed fund liquidation.
ROBUSTA PRICES DOWN: London robusta coffee futures settled one percent weaker on Friday under origin pressure and spread activity, dealers said.
Liffe benchmark November lost seven dollars to end the week at $654 a tonne after trading in a $653-671 range on volume of 3,579 from a session tally of 7,246.
"We anticipated a steadier New York, there's been some origin pressure and then we slumped again," a dealer said.
Dealers noted spread activity with the November/January discount seen at $16 to $18.
The January position also ended down seven dollars, closing at $671 a tonne, at the bottom of a $670-689 range after turning over 2,148 lots.
In fundamental news from Brazil, a few light showers are expected to fall in south Minas and north-east Sao Paolo state this weekend, but next week will begin mainly dry, private meteorologists Somar said on Friday.
The rain won't be heavy enough to disrupt harvesting which is in its closing stage, according to a Reuters report from Rio de Janeiro.
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