London white sugar futures closed fairly steady on Friday after a session that saw prices weighed by arbitrage sales on the last day of trade of the front month August contract, traders said. Spot Liffe August settled $3 higher at the day's peak of $317.00 after trading 1,547 lots. Its lowest point was $309.00.
Second-month October ended flat at $284.00 after moving 1,806 lots between $284.50 and $281.10.
"There is arbitrage selling at an October-October whites-over-raws premium of $71-73," said one trader, adding that he expected moderate to large deliveries against expiry of August.
Russia's second sugar beet test for 2005, carried out on July 11, showed an average root weight of 109 grams, up from 94 grams in the same test last year, the Russian Sugar Producers' Union said on Friday.
COCOA FIRMER: London cocoa futures closed firmer on Friday, partly on structural trade, and traders noted a lack of key fundamental news to drive the market, with September remaining in a familiar range.
Liffe September settled up 13 pounds at 852 a tonne in volume of 3,166 lots, having moved from 858 to 833.
December concluded 12 higher at 870 in volume of 2,060 lots, taken from the total 6,993 traded.
"The market is very slow. Part of the volume is structural. There is not a lot of input news-wise," a trader said. "September is in an 830-862 pound range."
Farmers in Ivory Coast's western town of Dukeoue, where at least 100 people were killed in ethnic clashes last month, say they fear for their security in the run-up to presidential elections in October.
Many plantations around Duekoue, at the centre of a region that accounts for about a quarter of annual output by the world's leading cocoa exporter, lay abandoned with produce rotting on trees and weeds running wild.
COFFEE LOWER: London's coffee market closed down on Friday after it struggled to keep early speculative-led gains as New York turned lower and fresh origin sales drove prices back into negative territory, though outright volumes were small, dealers said.
Most-active Liffe September closed $5 down at $1,234 a tonne after trading 6,082 lots between $1,250 and $1,221, while November lost $3 to finish at $1,256 on 3,543 lots.
A total 14,862 lots were traded. "We're still in range," said a trader.
"The market tried to rally this morning on maybe a little bit of sympathy with New York's close on Thursday, but origin selling is keeping us trapped within this recent band," he added.
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