Futures prices for white sugar fell for a fourth trading day in London yesterday, the longest losing streak since December, on concerns that buyers were deterred by fluctuating prices that had risen to a record last month. Egypt cancelled on Sunday a tender for 50,000 tonnes of raw sugar because prices were too high, said Ramadan Suleiman, a purchasing manager at the state-run Sugar and Integrated Industries.
Trading Corporation of Pakistan earlier this month scrapped a tender to import 150,000 tonnes of refined sugar after a dispute with the lowest bidder. "The momentum is out of the market," said Eugen Weinberg, an analyst with Commerzbank in Frankfurt. "Buyers are looking for lower prices, but the outlook for fundamentals remains positive." White, or refined, sugar for May delivery lost as much as US$6.30 to $700 a tonne in London and was quoted at $702.50 a tonne during trading yesterday. Prices rose last month to $767 a tonne, the highest level in at least two decades. White sugar for May delivery lost 4.4 per cent in the previous three sessions.
On ICE Futures in New York, raw sugar for May delivery slid 1.5 per cent to 25.58 cents a pound. Sugar prices doubled last year as excess rains in Brazil and a weak monsoon in India crimped output from the world's leading sugarcane growers. That sparked a rush for supplies by importing nations from Egypt to Mexico. In other trading, cocoa for May delivery advanced £17, or 0.8 per cent, to £2,298 a tonne.
And robusta coffee for May delivery dropped $12, or 0.9 per cent, to $1,291 a tonne, extending its retreat through a seventh trading day. The U.S. Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against six currencies, fell as much as 0.4 per cent on speculation that the Federal Reserve will keep its benchmark interest rate on hold to sustain a recovery in the world's largest economy. "Commodity prices are moving higher as the dollar is moving lower" in a "knee-jerk" relationship, economist Dennis Gartman said in his daily newsletter.
* Bloomberg
