Sugar bucked the trend of notable rises in commodities prices on Tuesday afternoon, as a forecast from the International Sugar Organisation (ISO) that the current deficit would vanish, depressed the market.
The benchmark August contract closed at $481.5 per tonne, up $1.70 from Monday's close, in total volume of 4683 lots.
"It didn't move as much in comparison with the others because the ISO numbers have been seen very negatively by the market, and people have been cautious of that," a trader said shortly after the close.
The current deficit of 1 million tones is expected to disappear in 2006/07, an ISO official told Reuters on the sidelines of an industry conference in Istanbul.
COFFEE RISES:
London robusta coffee futures closed higher on Tuesday, lifted by cross-commodity speculative buying.
The benchmark July contract ended at $1,124 a tonne, up $12 from Monday's close.
Total volume was 9,079 lots and the July contract's range was $1,102-1,130.
Coffee futures were picked up by the wave of speculative money returning to commodities after the recent sell-off, rather than a particular interest in the bean.
COCOA DOWN:
London cocoa futures closed lower on Tuesday, as a lack of buying interest continued to cast a cloud over the market, dealers said.
Benchmark July was down 8 pounds to settle at 846 a tonne, trading in a range of 845 to 856 in turnover of 4,336 lots.
Total volume was 13,203 lots.
"We've been drifting here all day," a trader said. "There's a bit of buying at these levels, but not much interest to break out of the range."