NY cocoa rises again; hits resistance at $2,600/t

Aug 29 (Reuters) - U.S. cocoa futures rose for a third
straight session on Wednesday, as fund buying propelled
chocolate's key ingredient to fresh nine-month highs before
prices hit resistance at $2,600 per tonne.
Speculators continue to bet on supply disruptions from the
Ivory Coast, the world's No. 1 bean growing region. Raw sugar
futures fell almost 1 percent on selling due to steady
harvesting in top producer Brazil. Coffee also slipped.

3:43 PM SETTLE NET PCT LOW HIGH CURRENT
CHNG CHNG VOL
Sugar OCT 19.76 -0.44 -2.2% 19.67 20.39 59,270
Sugar MAR 20.37 -0.47 -2.3% 20.27 20.98 27,965
Cocoa SEP 2619 22 0.8% 2,634 2,645 37
Cocoa DEC 2574 12 0.5% 2,560 2,600 12,458
Coffee SEP 166.4 -1.5 -0.9% 166.25 168.60 69
Coffee DEC 166.65 -2 -1.2% 165.75 169.10 6,679

TOTAL MARKET VOLUME
CURRENT 30D AVG 250D AVG
ICE SUGAR 105,017 113,650 88,516
ICE COCOA 18,386 23,774 19,013
ICE COFFEE 9,772 24,502 19,769

RAW SUGAR
* October raw sugar futures on ICE closed at 19.76
cents per lb, down 0.37 cent, or 1.8 percent.
* Prices lost half the ground gained a day earlier when
Chinese consumers made a surprise return to buy after prices hit
fresh 11-week low of 19.45 cents. That drove prices up 3
percent.
* Prices will remain prone to short-covering given the
market's oversold status. The market hovering close to June lows
could also attract physical buyers, traders said.
* Tunisia is seeking to purchase 28,000 tonnes of sugar, a
source at the Office du Commerce de Tunisie (OCT) said on
Tuesday.
* October sugar will rebound to 20.52 cents per lb,
following the completion of a five-wave cycle on the fall from
24 cents to 19.45 cents.
* The world's second biggest sugar exporter Thailand plans
to build 14 new cane crushing mills by 2017, adding to the
current 47 mills, as the government positions to keep up with
growing sugar demand in the Asian region.

ARABICA COFFEE
* Benchmark December arabica futures on ICE settled
0.77 percent lower at $1.6665 per lb, with support likely around
$1.6535.
* Trading volume was low with 9,772 lots changing hands,
half the 30- and 250-day averages.
* Signs of weakening demand persist, with exchange stocks
rising by another 4,000 bags and taking the total to 1.947
million bags.
* The Cuban coffee harvest began ahead of schedule this
week, with farmers scrambling to pick ripe beans over the
weekend as tropical storm Isaac bore down on the island and then
left a rapidly maturing crop in its wake.
* The top price of Kenya's benchmark grade AA coffee slid to
$267 per bag from $310 at the previous auction as prices fell on
world markets and buyers shunned the low quality of crop on
offer.
* A bullish target at $1.7305 per lb remains intact for
December coffee, based on a double-bottom.

COCOA
* ICE December cocoa futures settled $6 higher, or
0.23 percent, at $2,574 per tonne, outperforming a broadly
positive commodity market.
* It was the third straight session of increases, with
prices hitting a new nine-month high of $2,600 per tonne before
retracing some of those gains on technical selling.
* Farmers in the Ivory Coast are struggling to contain an
outbreak of fungal black pod disease, which could hurt yields
and quality in the main crop which will be harvested in October.

* Some of the buying was inspired by hopes Federal Reserve
Chairman Ben Bernanke will announce fresh measures to boost the
world's largest economy in a much-anticipated speech on Friday.
* Producer selling remained light, even as prices approached
overbought territory. The Relative Strength Index was 69, just
shy of 70, considered an indicator of an overbought market.
* The backwardation, in place for the past two weeks, was
steady at $45, reflecting a perception of nearby tightness.
* The thinly traded September contract rose 0.19
percent to $2,619 percent, also hitting fresh nine-month highs.
* Over 18,000 lots were traded, about 5,000 lots below the
30-day moving average and broadly in-line with the 250-day
moving average.
* December cocoa will keep rising to $2,635 per tonne,
driven by a powerful wave C.

For related news and prices, click on the codes in brackets:
Sugar futures/spreads Sugar cash prices
Coffee futures/spreads Coffee cash prices
Cocoa futures/spreads Cocoa cash prices

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(Reporting by Josephine Mason; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)