Raw sugar futures vaulted Tuesday to a 30-year high on trade and speculative buying, with late short-covering nudging arabica coffee to nearly a 13-1/2-year high in thin business as most players were away until after the New Year, analysts said.Cocoa values climbed, buoyed by fears of supply disruption due to the political stalemate in top grower Ivory Coast.
New York's March raw sugar contract climbed 0.75 cent to end at a 30-year peak at 34.39 cents per lb, having hit a contract top at 34.60 cents. The market is up 27 percent year to date in the Reuters Jefferies commodity index, but the bulk of the increase for the sweetener came in when the market rose over 30 percent in the last month-and-a-half, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Even though the market is at a 30-year high, the close stands at roughly half of the record finish around 65 cents posted in the early 1970s. Indian exporters are thinking they should be able to export 2.0 million tonnes, but they can only export 1.1 million tonnes right now, dealers said.
The volume of business though was light. Total raw sugar contracts traded stood at about 33,700 lots, about two-thirds below the 30-day average around 111,100 lots, Thomson Reuters preliminary data showed. The key March cocoa contract in New York increased $25 to conclude at $3,065 per tonne. The March arabica coffee contract on ICE Futures US gained 1.85 cents to conclude at $2.393 per lb, with volume of 3,700 lots, which is around 85 percent below the 30-day average, according to Thomson Reuters figures.
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