London's most traded cocoa futures March contract finished down on Wednesday, toppled from an earlier 10-week high after short-covering failed to support the New York market, dealers said.
Liffe's second-month March settled off by 19 pounds at 861 pounds a tonne after earlier hitting 894 pounds. That was the highest since September 9 and marked a rise of almost nine percent since last Monday's close.
The contract low for the day was 861 pounds. It turned over 7,643 lots out of a total of 14,610.
"The buying was done in the morning in London...Locals went long in New York looking for short-covering to continue. When it didn't they dumped it," a trader said.
Liffe's front-month December finished eight pounds higher at 866 pounds on volume of 1,375 lots.
Rains were below average in seven out of nine Ivory Coast cocoa growing regions during the second 10 days of November, data showed on Wednesday.
Front-month March ended down 90 cents at $298.10 per tonne in volume of 841 lots. "The market was fairly quiet as it is still waiting for the result of the EU reform meeting," one trader said.
"On the one hand you have some traders trying to hold the market around these levels because they are heavily long, and on the other hand we had some light hedge selling." Raw sugar futures prices could rise to between 14 and 16 cents a lb from near 12 cents now, in part because of increased use of biofuel ethanol made from Brazilian cane, broker and analyst Jonathan Kingsman said on Wednesday.
Liffe's most-active January robusta coffee finished down $4 at $1,033 a tonne after volume of 2,926 lots between $1,028 and $1,040.