White sugar sets 3-1/2 month high, cocoa also climbs

LONDON: White sugar futures rose to a 3-1/2 month high on Monday as the market extended the prior session's sharp advance, buoyed by further gains in crude oil and concerns about dry weather in top exporter Brazil.

US-based raw sugar, New York cocoa and arabica coffee markets were closed on Monday for Presidents' Day.

SUGAR

* May white sugar ended $3.10, or 0.9 percent, higher at $357.80 a tonne after peaking at $359.40, a 3-1/2 month high for the front month.

* Dealers said the market was supported by a diminished outlook for sugar production in the key Centre-South region of Brazil this year due partly to a lack of rainfall in January and the first half of this month.

* "A relatively poor sugar supply from CS Brazil this year is on the cards," analyst Robin Shaw of Marex Spectron said in a market update.

* He added, however, that sugar could not sustain a major rally.

* "There is simply too much extra supply which will occur if sugar prices rally substantially - much more sugar from CS Brazil if sugar prices are above the ethanol parity, and much more exports out of India if world prices rise," he said.

* Some mills in Brazil switch between producing either sugar or biofuel ethanol depending on relative profitability.

COCOA

* May London cocoa closed 18 pounds, or 1.0 percent, higher at 1,778 pounds a tonne after setting a six-week high of 1,780 pounds.

* Dealers said the market was beginning to gather some upward momentum, boosted by both technically-driven buying and some concerns about dry weather in top grower Ivory Coast.

* "The (technical) indicators are firmly on the front foot," Sucden Financial technical analyst Geordie Wilkes said, adding resistance at 1,800 pounds could be challenged.

* Most of Ivory Coast's cocoa growing regions saw no rainfall last week, raising fears for the April-to-September mid-crop, farmers said on Monday.

* Cocoa arrivals at ports in top grower Ivory Coast reached 1.442 million tonnes between Oct. 1 and Feb. 17, exporters estimated on Monday, up about nine percent from 1.321 million tonnes in the same period last season.

COFFEE

* May robusta coffee settled at an unchanged $1,555 s tonne.

* Vietnam, the world's top robusta producer, exported 183,693 tonnes of coffee in January, customs data showed on Monday, higher than the government's estimate of 175,000 tonnes.