London sugar futures closed mixed on Thursday after drifting in afternoon trade, dealers said. March settled at $336.80 per tonne, down 40 cents from Wednesday, after trading in a range of $335.00-$340.00. May was up 60 cents at $325.80, and total volume across contracts was 8,227 lots.
"Some funds started to buy this morning, then they finished and that's all that's happened in the market today," a dealer said. Both March and May were up by midday on what dealers described as a mixture of speculative and trade buying.
The European Union accepted bids to buy 2,750 tonnes of sugar held in intervention storage, data showed. The EU faces a sugar surplus in 2007/08 and production quotas may be cut as a result, officials said on Thursday.
COFFEE STRONGER: London robusta coffee closed higher on Thursday on a mix of speculative and industry buying, traders said. Benchmark March gained $10 or 0.6 percent to $1,572 a tonne. It traded in a tight range, hitting $1,564 shortly after opening and touching on $1,575 before market close.
Spot January rose $20 or 1.3 percent to $1,598, while May increased by $7 to $1,566. Total volume traded was 10,956 lots, around 3,000 lots lighter than the 100-day average.
COCOA FIRMS: London cocoa ended higher on light speculative spread buying on Thursday, traders said. Front-month March rose by 6 pounds or 0.7 percent to 881 pounds a tonne while May finished 5 pounds or 0.6 percent stronger to 898 pounds.
Traded volume was just over half the 100-day average at 6,541 lots. "We've been largely spread-dominated," one dealer said, referring to the activity between the March, May, and July contracts. The dealer estimated that around 2,000 lots, or one third of the total volume traded, was spread-related.
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