Sugar futures charged higher on Tuesday on technical buying, with raws climbing over 5.0 percent after sinking to a three-week low in the previous session, analysts said. Cocoa futures, on the other hand, sank on all-around liquidation while coffee futures were mixed at the close. New York's key October raw sugar contract increased 0.83 cent or by 4.68 percent to end at 18.56 cents a lb.
On Monday, the contract dropped 0.51 cent to close at 17.73 cents in the lowest settlement close for the spot raw sugar contract since July 21. After rallying to a 5-month top of 19.88 cents on August 2, raw sugar has lost 11.92 percent in value to hit a three-week intra-day low of 17.51 cents on Tuesday.
US cocoa futures broke through critical support at $2,900 per tonne, basis September, triggering automatic sell-stops. New York's December cocoa contract dropped $109 or by 3.59 percent to close at $2,930 per tonne. Coffee futures were mixed, with arabica futures seeing September/December spreading dominate the moderate volume in the market. The slightly widening spread was a near-term bearish indicator, said Goens. New York's September arabica contract added 0.05 cent to conclude at $1.6965 a lb.