Investment fund buying drove London coffee and cocoa futures to new peaks on Thursday, while two-way speculative dealings and profit taking kept the lid on white sugar which closed flat. London March robusta coffee futures hit a contract high of $2,016 per tonne, a near four-month peak basis second month, before easing back to close up $39 at $2,014 per tonne in good volume of 15,146 lots.
"The general mood is still one of fund buying in the markets in general and it is clearly the same on coffee," one trader said. Brazil, the world's largest coffee producer and exporter, should ship 27 million 60-kg bags of coffee this year, down 4 percent from the more than 28 million bags sold abroad in 2007, the Council of Green Coffee Exporters, Cecafe, said.
London cocoa futures also rose, touching a fresh six-month peak, boosted by further speculative and fund buying interest, dealers said. May rose as high as 1,145 pounds, just below last year's high of 1,146 pounds, which was set on July 6. May settled at 1,143 pounds, up 11. Dry weather in top producer Ivory Coast contributed to underpinning the market's current advance, dealers said.
London white sugar futures finished flat after a session dominated by two-way speculative trade as some players took profits, but remained close to Tuesday's seven-month peaks. March closed up 20 cents to $328.80 per tonne in brisk volume of 8,307 lots. March touched a seven-month high of $334.00 per tonne on Tuesday. Dealers saw key resistance at this level, with support at $325.00. Ukraine's 2007 sugar beet harvest fell by almost 24 percent to 17.06 million tonnes from 22.42 million in 2006, the State Statistics Committee said on Thursday.