US nearby cocoa futures rose 4 percent Wednesday, with a fresh bout of fund buying boosting prices to their highest in two months and extending a 5 percent advance the previous session, traders said. The New York Board of Trade's most-active September contract climbed $58, or 3.9 percent, to settle at $1,560 a tonne, near the top of a $1,526-$1,562 trading range. Its peak trade was the loftiest since April 21.
Cocoa futures prices, which had been lingering near 11-month lows, started their big climb yesterday amid a combination of dollar weakness, strong technical signals and renewed political tensions in No 1 cocoa grower Ivory Coast. Last month, the International Cocoa Organisation predicted a world cocoa supply deficit of 44,000 tonnes in 2004/05 (September-October) after a surplus of 245,000 tonnes last season.