Liffe sugar, coffee down; cocoa rises

May white sugar ended $0.60 lower at $706.30 a tonne on Friday. Prices rangebound with a lack of offtake from key importers and a stronger dollar keeping a lid on the market. May cocoa on Liffe ended 18 pounds higher at 2,281 pounds a tonne. Market supported by the weakness of sterling and growing political tension in Ivory Coast although a favourable mid-crop outlook in the world's top producing country is helping to keep prices in check.
May robusta coffee settled off $3 at $1,303 per tonne after setting a contract low of $1,300. Strength of dollar weighing on the market. Earlier, cocoa futures on ICE were flat on Friday as growing political tensions in the world's top producer Ivory Coast helped to offset the impact of a stronger dollar on commodities priced in the US unit.
A rise in the value of the US currency after the Federal Reserve's surprise increase in the interest rate it charges banks for emergency loans resulted in a modest setback in sugar while coffee was little changed in thin volume.
"There is fairly good support from the unrest out there (in Ivory Coast) but the upside is somewhat limited as the mid-crop looks quite good," one London dealer said. Security forces in Ivory Coast killed as many as three people when they fired live rounds and tear gas at hundreds of protesters in Gagnoa on Friday, opposition and hospital sources said from the south-western town.
The town is in a key cocoa producing area. Raw sugar was dominated by trade buying of the March/May spread ahead of the front month's expiry next week. "March (raws) is now becoming very technical as we head towards expiry next Friday, but one feels that we will need to see more actual end-buyer offtake if the market is going to have any real chance of staging a decent recovery from its current nervous situation," broker Sucden UK said in a market note.
Dealers noted there had been few confirmed purchases in the physical market despite expectations of strong demand from a number of key consumers including India and Pakistan. India needs to urgently import 3-5 million tonnes of white sugar and may ship in rice to calm food prices, a top aide of the prime minister said, signalling a tighter supply situation than previous estimates.