NEW YORK/LONDON: Sugar futures rose on Thursday ahead of the October white sugar contract's expiry and as biweekly Brazil cane industry data showed lower production than some expected. Cocoa and arabica coffee on ICE Futures US were also higher.
The October refined sugar contract closed up $14.20, or 2.6 percent, at $553.70 per tonne amid wild spread-related gyrations, supported by a sense of tightening supplies.
It finished at a discount of $2.30 per tonne against December futures.
Sucden was seen as the buyer of a cash delivery of 138,250 tonnes against the contract, traders said. The most-active December contract settled up $9.60, or 1.76 percent, at $556 per tonne.
"The white (sugar) market has been dragging up the raws," Claudiu Covrig, a senior analyst with Kingsman Platts S&P Global, said in a phone interview.
The most-active raw sugar contract settled up 0.43 cent, or 2.07 percent, at 21.16 cents per lb. The front-month closed up 1.7 percent at 20.48 cents.
Gains were further propelled by data from Brazil. A biweekly report from industry group Unica showed the center-south cane belt produced 2.54 million tonnes of sugar in the second half of August, less than some were expecting.
"The market is worried about the yields in the second half of the crop," Covrig said.
Cocoa futures were slightly higher as the market continued to slowly regain ground after last week's sharp decline.
BMI Research commodities analyst Alexandre Andrey said in a report the group is neutral on cocoa prices, expecting them to trade around spot levels through end-2016. December London cocoa settled up 14 pounds, or 0.63 percent, at 2,250 pounds per tonne, while December New York cocoa settled up $23, or 0.82 percent, at $2,832 per tonne.
Ivory Coast's cocoa marketing board said it will adjust its pricing scale for the 2016/17 season to compensate for transport costs.
Volume was boosted by last-minute rolling forward of positions from the September London contract, which expired on Thursday.
Robusta coffee futures rose to an 18-month high before robust profit-taking erased the gains.
ICE November robusta coffee settled down $6, or 0.31 percent, at $1,936 per tonne after peaking at $1,947, the highest for the second-month since February 2015.
ICE December arabica coffee finished unchanged at $1.489 per lb.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.