London white sugar futures closed slightly weaker after trading in a narrow range, with many traders in New York to attend an industry dinner on Wednesday. Benchmark August settled down $1.90 at $478.70 per tonne in volume of 2,426 lots, after trading from $482.60 to $477.20.
October finished down $2.40 at $471.60 per tonne in volume of 952 lots, having moved from $475.60 to $471.00. "It's been a rangebound day. Due to the New York sugar dinner, a lot of traders put in their market levels and are standing back," one trader said. Traders said sugar futures responded to speculative flows, which are linked to other commodity markets such as gasoline.
Shortages of suitable nationally grown crops could slow European moves to replace contaminating transport fuel with clean-burning, plant-based alternatives, industry sources said at a conference on Wednesday.
Iraq has cancelled a tender to buy 450,000 tonnes of white sugar, and local traders have supplied it with 200,000 tonnes since February at $540 per tonne CIF, a trade ministry official said on Wednesday.
COFFEE LOWER: London robusta coffee futures closed slightly lower on Wednesday, weighed by light origin selling and profit-taking, dealers said. July closed down $4 at $1,210 per tonne after trading in a narrow range of $1,219 to $1,208. Total volume was a light 4,545 lots.
Dealers said there was little follow-through buying after the market's advance on Tuesday and the prices remained trapped around the middle of the $1,240 to $1,185 range on July which has held for the last three weeks.
"The market reversed (higher) yesterday (Tuesday) and where we are now there is limited interest," one dealer said.
Privately-held coffee stocks in Brazil are seen at 9.7 million 60-kg bags by March 31, down from 12.2 million bags a year ago, the agriculture ministry's crop supply agency (Conab) said on Wednesday.
COCOA DOWN: London cocoa futures closed weaker on Wednesday despite a late-session spurt of speculative fund buying that pared earlier losses, dealers said. Benchmark July was down 3 pounds to settle at 879 a tonne in volume of 8,962 lots. It traded in a range of 867 to 892 pounds.
"London wobbled a little bit this morning, but there has been some speculative fund buying that lifted it up," a trader said. "Still, we're not sure that the trend has changed," the trader said.
Weakness in the dollar underpinned cocoa trading in New York, but was not a significant factor in London, according to another trader. The pound hit a one-year high of $1.8734 earlier on Wednesday. The front-month May contract fell 10 pounds to 857 a tonne in London, trading in a range of 852 to 869. Volume was 4,148 lots, with much of the activity coming from trade Against Actuals. Total volume in the market was 16,576 lots.
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