Robusta coffee futures rose on Thursday, rebounding further away from a 1-1/2 year low hit this week as speculative fund selling waned, while raw sugar hovered just above recent lows.
January robusta coffee was up $29, or 1.7 percent, at $1,741 a tonne by 1434 GMT, extending gains from the previous session. Prices earlier this week tumbled to $1,683 a tonne, their weakest since June 2016, on the back of a wave of aggressive speculative selling by system funds, dealers said.
However, the selling had waned and short-covering activity was lending some support to prices on Thursday, dealers said. Focus remained on Vietnam where harvesting is underway and a good crop is expected.
"Going forward we think robusta will become tight again over the year," one dealer said. "But we've got a big Vietnam crop coming in now - the supply is nearby." However, dealers said there was uncertainty over whether this new coffee would be offered for January delivery, since current Vietnam bean differentials make it relatively unattractive to deliver to the exchange.
March arabica coffee was up 0.65 cents, or 0.5 percent, at $1.2075 per lb, after hitting its weakest since June earlier this week. Coffee stocks held in European ports declined by 4 percent in October, figures from the European Coffee Federation (ECF) showed on Thursday.
March raw sugar was down 0.03 cent, or 0.2 percent, at 13.82 cents per lb after falling to 13.72 cents, just above Tuesday's 2-1/2 month low of 13.70. Dealers said the market was in technically oversold territory but prices were partly pressured by a weak Brazilian real, which encourages more selling by boosting returns for producers in local currency terms.
They also noted broadly bearish fundamentals were limiting upside potential. Even as top grower Brazil is expected to produce less sugar, world sugar production is forecast to rise 8 percent to a record 192 million tonnes in 2017/18, Informa's Agribusiness Intelligence said.
"Elsewhere in the world, the outlook for sugar production remains strong, with record crops expected in many markets this year," said Stefan Uhlenbrock, senior commodity analyst at F.O Licht, part of Informa's Agribusiness Intelligence. March white sugar was down $1.20, or 0.3 percent, at $362.70 a tonne. March New York cocoa was up $10, or 0.5 percent, at $1,898 a tonne. March London cocoa was unchanged at 1,414 pounds a tonne.