NYBOT cocoa front futures rose over 2 percent on speculator buying in an active session on Tuesday, despite favourable crop weather forecast for cocoa-rich Ivory Coast, traders and analysts said.
"There have been good rains forecast for two days, which favours Ivory Coast crop conditions," said Ann Prendergast, an analyst at Reface. "So I am a little surprised that it (market) is higher.
I don't see anything to sustain it," she said. Benchmark September cocoa settled $38 firmer, or up 2.35 percent, at $1,653 a tonne, the top half of its $1,618-$1,660 trading range.
December cocoa jumped about 2.6 percent to settle at $1,681, or $42 higher, after trading from $1,645 to $1,687. Longer dated contracts settled $40 to $41 higher from Monday.
Traders cited technical reasons for the gains. "There will be a lot more spread trading picking up now ahead of the first notice day for the September contract on August 18," he said, referring to when the benchmark contract shifts to December from September.
Final estimated cocoa futures volume on Tuesday reached 21,613 lots compared with Monday's 13,147 lots. Open interest in the cocoa market fell 1,698 lots to 116,588 lots as of August 9.
Technicians put support for September cocoa at $1,620 to $1,625 with resistance at $1,670 to $1,675, traders said.