Liffe May robusta coffee ended $159 higher at $2,498 a tonne on Tuesday with the premium to July rebounding to around $100 from about $30 at the close on Monday. Market supported by surge in ICE arabicas and tight supply outlook. Liffe July cocoa ended 44 pounds lower at 1,911 pounds a tonne. Signs that the conflict in top grower Ivory Coast may soon be resolved contributed to the fall in prices.
Liffe May white sugar rises $6.10 to close at $722.30 a tonne. Market remains rangebound as the market eyes the outlook for the harvest in top producer Brazil. Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo was negotiating the terms of his surrender following a fierce assault by forces loyal to his rival, backed by UN and French helicopter airstrikes.
Dealers said the developments in Ivory Coast could lead to further losses in the cocoa market as exports, banned for more than two months, are expected to resume within weeks, if Gbagbo leaves. "I expect prices to weaken but I don't expect them to fall off a cliff ... the sell-off that we saw last week reduced an awful lot of the long exposure," said Jonathan Parkman, joint head of agriculture at Marex Financial Ltd in London.
"Since the election, fundamentals have definitely become more bearish, which is important in trying to determine where prices might end up," Parkman said, adding he expects London prices to fall to between 1,700 and 1,800 pounds a tonne.McDougall, vice president of brokers Newedge USA. In Ivory Coast, forces loyal to presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara launched an offensive that brought them to Gbagbo's doorstep. They captured the key cocoa-exporting port of San Pedro, where about one-half of the country's bean exports are shipped out.
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