LONDON: White sugar futures edged higher on Monday while robusta coffee and London cocoa eased in thin conditions due to the closure of New York-based contracts for Presidents Day.
Raw sugar, arabica coffee and New York cocoa markets will reopen on Tuesday.
SUGAR
White sugar futures were higher in thin volume with May up $4.80, or 0.9 percent, at $554.90 a tonne at 1249 GMT.
Traders said the market lacked a clear overall trend with the focus partly on the expiry of the March raws contract on Feb. 28.
"The New York March contract expiry looms as an event that might stir the market. Otherwise, the focus is on the second quarter when tight supply might manifest itself," Commonwealth Bank of Australia analyst Tobin Gorey said.
COCOA
London cocoa futures were lower with May down 17 pounds, or 1.0 percent, at 1,610 pounds a tonne.
Dealers said the market was back on the defensive after a short-lived rally from a more than 8-year low of 1,541 pounds early last week to a peak of 1,674 pounds on Friday.
A favourable outlook for crops in West Africa and the prospect for a large global surplus in the current 2016-17 season remained the main bearish factors.
Rain last week in most of Ivory Coast's main cocoa growing regions will help produce an abundant April-to-September mid-crop, farmers said on Monday, though dry, hot weather was damaging flowers in the east.
COFFEE
Robusta coffee was marginally lower with May down $2, or 0.1 percent, at $2,142 a tonne.
Traders said the market's run-up, driven by tightness in robusta supplies, had temporarily stalled and funds were scaling back long positions.
Robusta coffee speculators cut a net long position by 3,819 lots to 39,682 lots, as of Feb. 14, exchange data showed on Monday.
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