London sugar futures closed slightly lower on Monday after recovering from earlier oil-led speculative selling across commodities. The benchmark August white sugar contract closed at $479.80 a tonne on Monday, down $1.20 from its Friday close.
The day's range for the August contract was $471-482.20 and total volume across contracts was 7,357 lots.
Though sugar managed to resist the commodities sell-off in the morning, later in the day it fell sharply, at one point losing more than 2 percent to $471.
Its close link with crude oil prices - sugar product ethanol is used in biofuels - left it vulnerable to cross-commodity profit-taking on a day when oil itself, gold, copper and coffee all lost value.
A fund manager in Europe said he would not buy any more long positions in sugar until he thought the clearout of speculative money was over.
"I would prefer to wait to see if a strong upwards trend starts again rather than move in too soon, as it could still correct a bit," he said.
Benchmark July was down 12 pounds to settle at 853 a tonne, trading in a range of 850 to 863 in turnover of 5,643 lots.
Total volume was 13,559 lots.
"We still remain within the recent range, but we are heading to the recent lows. There is support below these levels," a trader said.
Benchmark July ended at $1,112 a tonne, down $19 from Friday's close, and a new six-week low. Total volume was 8,248 lots and the August contract's range was $1,112 to $1,134.
Dealers said origin selling contributed to a modest early decline in London but weakness in the New York arabica market provided the main impetus for the downward move.