US cocoa open-outcry futures contracts surged a 7-1/2-month high on Thursday from speculative buying to settle higher, traders said.
"I think we had one fund come in for the most part, one or two funds. It's the first day of the month, they come out, they bought it up," one trader said, noting that most traders were away attending the Cocoa Merchants' Association of America conference in Miami.
"A traditional bulwark was not there, for the most part," the trader added. London's Liffe May contract closed at a 7-month high, following New York's coattails. May settled up 25 pounds to end at its high of 986 pounds, with the low at 955 pounds. On the New York Board of Trade, the benchmark may contract shot up $71 to settle at $1,803.
It hit a 7-1/2-month high at $1,810, with a trading low of $1,736. July settled at a 7-1/2-month high of $1,828, with a session low of $1,760. Apart from one contract, the rest ended up $69 to $71. On the IntercontinenalExchange NYBOT electronic platform, May climbed $72 to $1,804 at 1:12 pm EST (1812 GMT) and July rose $66 to $1,824.
Electronic trading ends at 3:15 pm Final total volume was estimated by NYBOT at 10,575 lots compared with the previous official tally at 13,334, with 5,397 of those trading electronically. In West Africa, cocoa exporters in Ivory Coast said on Thursday they expected the October-March main crop to reach up to around 915,000 tonnes when the season closes at the end of this month.
That would set production on par with last year's going by an exporter estimate of 915,000 tonnes for the 2005/06 main crop, but would mean output was smaller than last year going by the Coffee and Cocoa Bourse (BCC) estimate of 944,000 tonnes.