Raw sugar near 11-month lows, arabica coffee rises

LONDON: Raw sugar futures firmed near 11-month lows on Thursday, after a short-lived rally a day earlier failed to spark momentum, while arabica coffee edged higher as light buying supported.

SUGAR

May raw sugar was up 0.04 cent, or 0.25 percent, at 16.14 cents a lb by 1147 GMT, just above a 11-month low touched in the previous session.

Futures rallied by more than 4 percent early on Wednesday after India said it would allow 500,000 tonnes of raw sugar to be imported duty-free, but the market sank later in the session as buying interest petered out.

Market expectations on Indian imports had varied from 500,000 tonnes to 1.5 million tonnes, with dealers noting they are not yet ruling out further imports later in the year.

Growing worries about a surplus in the upcoming 2017/2018 season, however, remained in sharp focus and dealers noted prices could test new lows.

"We believe 16 cents will be breached soon but it will be a slow erosion rather than a stampede to sell," said Nick Penney, senior trader at Sucden Financial. "There is too much potential weather risk and uncertainty around to justify being aggressive on the downside."

May white sugar rose $1.80, or 0.39 percent, to $466.00 per tonne.

COFFEE

May arabica coffee rose 0.95 cent, or 0.69 percent, to $1.3825 per lb.

Prices were supported by some fresh buying, with dealers noting appetite was strong around the $1.38 mark.

However, support remained fragile amid ample supplies and lack of fresh fundamental news to lend direction to the market.

"It's hard to describe what we're seeing as an uptick," said one dealer. "The volume is light, so it's just a few more buyers in the market than sellers."

Brazil's Conab sold all 3,733 bags of arabica coffee from the government's supply in an auction on Wednesday, zeroing out public stocks for the first time in at least 10 years.

May robusta fell $8, or 0.37 percent, to $2,145 a tonne.

Robusta coffee bean exports from Indonesia's main growing area of Lampung rose 28 percent in March from the same month a year earlier.

COCOA

July New York cocoa was down $5, or 0.24 percent, to $2,108 a tonne.

July London cocoa fell 2 pounds, or 0.12 percent, to 1,697 pounds a tonne.