London white sugar futures closed sharply down on Friday, touching a 6-1/2-month low on speculative and fund selling, traders said. Benchmark October finished down $10.00 or 2.4 percent at $409.00 per tonne after dipping to $403.70, the lowest level for the front month in 6-1/2 months.
"We saw fund and speculative selling, and we've attracted some trade buying," one trader said.
Total volume was a moderate 6,497 lots.
Traders said sugar prices were weighed down by supply as farmers from Brazil to Russia and Southeast Asia had increased plantings in response to high prices.
Paris-based sugar consultancy Societe J. Kingsman on Friday raised its forecast for the 2006/07 global sugar surplus to 3.3 million tonnes from its previous forecast in April for a surplus of 1.2 million tonnes.
COCOA LOWER:
London cocoa futures ended lower on Friday after earlier touching a three-week high in mainly technical activity, dealers said.
Liffe's most-active December contract ended down 7 pounds at 894 pounds a tonne after making a session peak of 906, the contract's top price since July 18. It had a session low of 893 pounds and moved 4,633 lots. Front-month September finished down 9 pounds at 866 in turnover of 4,592 lots.
"Nothing is giving people any sense of direction so they are sitting and waiting," a trader said. "There is not much outright activity." Overall turnover was 10,281 lots. In news from the world's top grower, cocoa arrivals at ports in Ivory Coast reached 1,316,234 tonnes between October 1 and August 6, 2006 according to an estimate by major exporters.
COFFEE FALLS: London robusta coffee futures closed sharply lower on Friday as speculators banked profits following the market's recent surge to a 6-1/2-year high, dealers said. Benchmark November closed down $27 at $1,392 a tonne, well below Thursday's peak of $1,451. The contract moved 6,291 lots between $1,418 and $1,384.
"There has been a little bit of a reality check today with end-week profit-taking," one dealer said, adding that about two-thirds of the volume came from spread activity. The November-January spread ended at about $80, little changed from Thursday's close. September's premium to November fell about $16 from a close of $31 on Thursday. The front month contract lost $42 to $1,4086 on volume of 5,743 lots.