US cocoa futures ended down for a fifth straight session on Thursday with worries over a bumper harvest in West Africa briefly pushing the benchmark contract to its lowest level in six weeks.
A torrent of speculative selling at the open - and a fair bit of technically driven buying before the close - resulted in an estimated volume of 20,387 lots, the highest seen on the New York Board of Trade for cocoa in October. In comparison, Wednesday's official volume was just 6,209 lots.
NYBOT cocoa futures' benchmark December contract ended down $9 at $1,413 a tonne, off its intraday-low of $1,396. The market was last below $1,400 on August 29, when the previous benchmark, September, touched $1,380.