Soft commodity markets staged a recovery rally on Monday, with raw sugar up on trade and speculative buying after suffering its biggest 2-day fall in 20 years last week. Coffee and cocoa futures ran up along with sugar as players seemed to catch their breath after sinking last Friday on talk of possible Chinese interest rate hikes and macro-economic weakness in global markets.
New York's March raw sugar contract rose 0.82 cent to finish at 27.03 cents per lb. Business in raw sugar remained heavy. Thomson Reuters preliminary data showed it stood around 135,000 lots, over 50 percent up on the 30-day average at 87,000 lots. Raw sugar suffered its largest one-day loss since 2002 last Friday and had its biggest two-day fall since 1991, according to Thomson Reuters data. New York's March arabica coffee contract gained 3.90 cents to finish at $2.0725 per lb. New York's March cocoa contract rose $43 to close at $2,822 per tonne, after posting last Friday its biggest one-day loss for cocoa since August.