London robusta coffee jumps

London robusta coffee futures extended early gains on fund, investor and roaster buying and sugar reversed losses in a short-covering rally on Tuesday, while cocoa fell on follow-through selling, dealers said. Robustas were the best-performing soft commodity early on bargain-hunting by roasters and industry after a steep sell-off on Monday.
In the afternoon, buy stops were triggered and funds and investors piled in, sending futures up by more than 4 percent, dealers said. London November coffee stood at $2,373 a tonne, up $77 or 3.35 percent, in good volume of 5,797 lots at 1451 GMT. ICE November arabicas were up 4.25 cent or 3 percent to $1.41 a lb. It was a sharp recovery after evidence of a global economic slowdown prompted investors to dump oil and other commodities on Monday.
The upside in softs on Tuesday was limited by weak oil prices and a stronger dollar. Sugar futures reversed early follow-through losses and jumped higher in a short-covering rally that caught many market participants by surprise. "It got above unchanged, and then triggered some buy stops," said David Sadler, a senior London-based sugar futures trader. Benchmark ICE October raw sugar futures were up 0.33 cent or 2.5 percent to 13.75 cents a lb at 1453 GMT.
London October white sugar futures were up $5.70 or 1.5 percent to $384.50 a tonne in moderate volume of 3,157 lots. Some traders believe sugar over-sold in the morning, noting prospects for tightening global supplies and rising production costs, auguring for higher prices in the medium term. Cocoa futures joined the follow-through sell-off and remained in negative territory throughout the session.
"Cocoa was one of the leaders of the debacle as freshly established longs were quickly jettisoned," a European broker said of this week's sell-off. ICE benchmark September cocoa futures fell $61 or 2.19 percent to stand at $2,722 a tonne at 1454 GMT. London December futures fell 33 pounds or 2.2 percent to 1,472 pounds a tonne in reasonable volume of 3,916 lots.