Liffe cocoa rises

Cocoa prices climbed on Friday as oversold bean futures staged a rebound while fighting spread between forces loyal to presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara and incumbent Laurent Gbagbo in top producer Ivory Coast. Bitter fighting spread across the Ivorian capital of Abidjan as forces loyal to Gbagbo fended off attacks by those seeking to install Ouattara.
The market had lost almost 10 percent in value the preceding three days as the prospect of Ouattara ousting Gbagbo increased, raising the prospect that cocoa will begin flowing after being stalled by the power struggle there. The unwinding of market long positions built up by fear of cocoa supply disruption could be seen as open interest in US cocoa hit a three-year high at 168,846 lots.
The July cocoa contract on London's Liffe market rose 32 pounds to end at 1,947 pounds a tonne. "It's a wait-and-see situation," said Keith Flury, soft commodities analyst with Rabobank in London. "We've seen a lot of liquidation already. People in the market are now consolidating."
"The market tipped so far to the sell side," said Sterling Smith, an analyst for brokers Country Hedging Inc in St. Paul, Minnesota. "It's overdone. We added a few shorts on the way down." Market players reacted cautiously to news that Nasdaq OMX and Intercontinental Exchange unveiled a rival bid to buy NYSE Euronext for about $11.3 billion in cash and stock, a 19 percent premium to the offer made by German competitor Deutsche Boerse.
Coffee futures stumbled on late investor liquidation, with robustas appearing to hit automatic sell order stops on the way down, dealers said. London's May robusta coffee contract fell $107 to end at $2,421 a tonne. Sugar futures moved higher, buoyed in part by short-covering and trade buying in the market. London's May white sugar contract added $1.50 to finish at $713.20 per tonne.