London cocoa prices closed mixed on Friday after being in negative territory for most of the session and still under pressure as funds and speculators went shorter, dealers said.
A technical problem in Liffe suspended trade in all the financial and commodity products for more than an hour in the afternoon but dealers said it didn't have any impact on prices.
"We have been trying to break down towards 800 and this market became a buying opportunity so this is exactly what someone did," a dealer said.
"We saw some late buying and I would say this is still a buy market going into Monday."
"All eyes are in New York given the arbitrage and that speculators still seem to be aggressive sellers there," he said.
While some traders saw room for lower prices as players digested a large Ivorian crop after months of bullish forecasts, the market's ability to hold on above the 800-pound level meant this could already be an undervalued level.
Benchmark May closed two pounds higher at 820 pounds a tonne on 3,211 lots, out of a total turnover of 8,259 lots.
It moved in an 823-809 pound range, respecting the 806 intraday low hit on Thursday and previously seen on early November 2001 for a second month.
If the market breached 800 the next key support level would be 775.
Front month March lost 13 at 831 on 2,614 lots.
Dealers said funds in New York should be above 10,000-11,000 lots short already and there was room for further selling. Their short position in London was estimated in a 10,000-12,000 lots range.
Players would need to see the ability of prices to hold on to gains after the recent sharp sell off.
Activity from origin remained low-key as farmers opted for stockpiling to avoid current prices and fund money should be a heavier factor than fundamentals in the short term, dealers said.
Softs analysts with Credit Lyonnais Rouse (CLR) said on Thursday the world should see a deficit of 32,000 tonnes versus a surplus of 72,000 tonnes the previous season.
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