London cocoa futures remained under pressure on Tuesday as the market paused to digest recent gains, with further profit-taking after the recent wave of fund buying seen taking prices lower, traders said.
Prices, basis December, scored their highest since early April above 900 pounds a tonne on Monday and matched the 902 peak earlier on Tuesday morning before retracing.
Benchmark December ended eight pounds down at 894 a tonne, just off the day's low of 892 on 1,371 lots.
Most-active front September settled at 871 pounds on volume of 3,898. Traders said volume had been inflated by Against Actuals.
Traders were monitoring crop developments in Ivory Coast, with several pod counters either returning from or just heading into the field to check on the 2004/05 harvest.
They said a respected US pod counter had issued his latest report on Monday and was for the moment forecasting a similar crop to the 2003/04 season, which was estimated at 1.3 to 1.4 million tonnes.