Liffe robusta coffee futures fell on speculative selling in a thin market unnerved by a series of blasts across London, dealers said on Thursday. The benchmark September futures contract ended down $11 at $1,243 a tonne, well off the day's low of $1,218. It opened at the day's high of $1,259. Volume on the second-month contract was 3,642 lots out of a total of 5,198.
The attacks in London may have prompted some speculators to offload coffee along with other commodities such as oil and metals, traders said.
"People with long positions may not have expected the fall and it tripped a few sell-stops. But they have bullied it back up again," one dealer said.
COCOA FLAT: London cocoa futures came to a flat finish on Thursday in the absence of fresh fundamental news or technical signals, traders said.
Liffe's most-active September futures position lost two pounds to 836 pounds a tonne in volume of 2,608 lots. It traded between 835 and 851.
Overall turnover reached 5,308 lots in what dealers said was subdued trade due to a series of bomb blasts in London.
The explosions, blamed on terrorists, caused sterling to sink to a fresh 19-month low against the dollar. "The weaker sterling would have aided the market a bit but in the absence of fresh fundamental news it's going to stay chopping around this level," a dealer said.
Front-month July lost three pound to end at 827 amid turnover of 1,326 lots.
SUGAR ENDS DOWN: London white sugar futures closed lower on speculative selling on Thursday after the London blasts that killed at least 33 people, traders said.
Front-month August settled down $1.4 at $296.5 per tonne in volume of 1,810 lots, having traded from $294.7 to $302.6.
October concluded down $1.9 at $276 per tonne in volume of 4,149 lots, after moving from $273.5 to $278.6. "Some traders who were long decided to take profits when the market failed to carry through on the upside," a trader said, referring to the August contract's brief foray above $300 to touch a seven-year front-month continuation high of $302.60 per tonne.