CSCE cocoa closed at a fresh six-month low on Monday as traders liquidated longs and rolled positions from the nearby May contract a week before its first notice day, traders said.
"First notice day is coming up on April 19 and the funds and specs were dumping longs and rolling positions out of May and into July," said a senior broker at a dealer firm.
Volume amounted to 12,582 contracts, which was down from Thursday's tally of 13,717 lots. The exchange was closed on Good on Friday.
"There were probably 3,000 May/July switches traded today as people rolled out of May," said one commission house broker.
Benchmark May cocoa closed $20 lower at $1,382 a tonne after trading from $1,374 to $1,410 range. This was the lowest close since November 3 and left dealers eyeing the life-of-contract low at $1,345. Traders departed the floor in a bearish mood and said London bean futures should open about 20 pounds lower on Tuesday when they return from their Easter holiday closure.
Cocoa futures have been declining since December as industry crop estimates for top producers Ivory Coast and Ghana have risen, improving the global supply outlook for the key ingredient in chocolate.
July cocoa lost $27 to settle at $1,389 and the back months finished $26 or $28 lowers.
For the rest of the week, traders will have more consumption data to evaluate following last week's higher-than-expected quarterly German grind figure.
Dealers suggested that the European figure could show a rise of 5 to 7 percent, based largely on the near 24 percent rise on the year for Germany's first-quarter 2004 cocoa grind.
Stocks of cocoa beans in warehouses of storage companies licensed by the exchange stood at 1,796,456 60-kg bags on April 12.