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CSCE cocoa eases to softer close in front of 2000

NEW YORK: CSCE cocoa futures ended marginally easier Thursday as bean prices continued to consolidate ahead of the 2000 millennial holiday weekend.

Benchmark March cocoa fell $8 to finish at $837 a tonne, trading between $847-$834. The contract had risen by the same amount on Wednesday to settle at $845.

May fell $6 to finish at $863. Back months lost from $6-$9 on the last trading day of the century.

The market had ended the week with a whimper after rallying sharply on Monday in reaction to the Christmas coup in top grower Ivory Coast. The CSCE cocoa marke will be shut on Friday, Dec. 31, and will reopen for business on Monday, January 3.

"It was a very exiting week in the cocoa market, because of the change of government in the Ivory Coast," said Walter Spilka, softs analyst with Salomon Smith Barney. Salomon is a unit of financial services giant Citigroup C.N.

Floor dealers said the market wallowed for the most part in a tight trading range.

"There's no one feature that I can point out today," one said.

Another said bean prices will not move sharply either way "until we get more news from the Ivory Coast," a broker said.

"If...nothing happens (there), you should see us languish like we have," he said.

In London, LIFFE cocoa closed fractionally firmer in slow range-bound trade on Thursday. March LCCHO ended at 571 stg a tonne, up three from the previous session.

Technically, chartists pegged resistance for March cocoa at $859 to $865 a tonne. Nearby support was seen between $820-$815.

The nine-day relative strength index (RSI) of March CSCE cocoa stood at 46 on Thursday, compared to 52 previously.

Analysts usually view an RSI reading of 30 or less as an indication the market is oversold, while 70 or more is normally a sign it is overbought on a short-term basis.

Volume traded reached an estimated 2,995 lots against the previous 5,729 lots. Call volume touched 925 lots while put volume reached 81 lots.-Reuters