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CSCE coffee ends easier, but bounces from support

NEW YORK: CSCE coffee futures finished lower on Friday, although losses were pared when arabicas managed to rebound off support as a result of roaster and local buying in a lightly traded session.

May arabica retreated 1.25 to close at 106.45 cents a lb, trading 108.25-105 cents. Spot March came off 1.10 to 106.10 cents.

The rest fell 1.10-0.90 cents.

Coffee came under immediate pressure from the start of business when speculative liquidation and a touch of selling by Colombian origins hit the market, brokers said.

"The Colombians were doing a bit of selling, but it really didn't take a lot to move the market considering it was so thinly traded," one said.

Once benchmark May touched 105 cents, which is a key level of support, some roasters decided to pick up some stuff and local shortcovering stopped the slide in futures, dealers said.

"105 (cents) is a good technical point. That's why it bounced from there," a dealer said.

Traders said the level of activity though was fairly thin since many industry players were attending the annual meeting of the U.S. National Coffee Association (NCA) in the resort city of Orlando, Florida.

"A lot of people were at the NCA so that took some of the stuffing out of the market," a dealer said.

In the meantime, the market was awaiting further news on the kind of measures top grower Brazil will take for a proposed coffee retention plan.

The Association of Coffee Producing Countries, a group of 14 nations representing the world's major coffee producers, will meet in London during the week of March 20 to discuss growers' plans.

Brazil is pushing for a retention plan to take some beans away from the market to shore up coffee prices.

On a technical basis, traders said May arabica should see support at the session low of 105, 102.50, then 100.25-100 cents, followed by 99 cents. Resistance would be at 110, then the recent peak of 110.25 cents.

Volume traded reached an estimated 6,916 lots, against the official previous volume of 7,601 lots.

Call volume reached an estimated 954 lots, whilst puts were seen at 955 lots.

The CSCE is a subsidiary of the New York Board of Trade.-Reuters