LONDON: London cocoa futures fell on Tuesday amid ample supply, though trade was volatile as sterling whipsawed on Brexit uncertainty.
COCOA
* May London cocoa was down 17 pounds, or 1 percent, at 1,649 pounds per tonne at 1514 GMT.
* Sterling reversed course on Tuesday, falling after Britain's attorney general poured cold water on the apparent breakthrough in Brexit negotiations between the European Union and Britain.
* A weaker British currency makes London-traded cocoa cheaper for holders of other currencies.
* A dealer said London cocoa was at the mercy of sterling in the short term, though participants were ultimately reluctant to bid up the chocolate ingredient due to adequate supply.
* Further out, he saw potential price gains given concerns over the Ivory Coast's mid-crop following below-average rainfall.
* Indonesia's trade office in Lampung, Sumatra, has revised up its 2018 monthly cocoa bean exports from the province to more than double 2017's exports.
* May New York cocoa fell $28, or 1.3 percent, to $2,174 per tonne.
SUGAR
* May raw sugar rose 0.06 cent, or 0.5 percent, to 12.35 cents per lb. The front month dipped to a two-month low of 12.08 cents on Thursday.
* A dealer said the fact that speculators were probably net short of around 90,000 lots was a supporting factor, but better than expected sugar output in India and Thailand was negative.
* As such the market remains range-bound, he said, driven in the short term by macro economic factors like oil prices and currency movements.
* Oil prices firmed on curbs to exports from Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.
* Stronger oil prices tend to support sugar prices by encouraging cane mills to produce more ethanol rather than sugar.
* May white sugar rose $1, or 0.3 percent, to $341.60 per tonne.
COFFEE
* May arabica coffee fell 0.05 cent, or 0.05 percent, to 97.15 cents per lb.
* Prices remain pressured by plentiful global supplies, especially from top grower Brazil.
* Indonesia's Lampung trade office has revised up its 2018 data for monthly coffee beans exports from the province.
* New York May coffee may test a support at $0.9650 per lb, a break below which could cause a fall to $0.9585, according to Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao.
* May robusta coffee fell $3, or 0.2 percent, to $1,529 per tonne.
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