London robusta prices closed lower on Wednesday on thin outright activity and with origin offers pressuring prices, dealers said.
Traders said the Liffe market remained in the same range it had seen for weeks and would need a signal from New York, where funds have accumulated a record long position, in order to venture into new territory.
Roaster scale-down buying helped the market to hold gains, while structural activity boosted the turnover with players rolling positions down the board and just above 100 lots of open interest left in the front month.
Benchmark May closed $8 down at $722 a tonne, having moved in a narrow $729-726 range on 2,813 lots from a total of 6,109. July closed $7 down at $744 on 2,279 lots.
Funds and speculators ignored indications of healthy output from Brazil and Vietnam and kept large long positions.