950822

CSCE cocoa

vaults on

speculative buying

NEW YORK: CSCE cocoa futures vaulted Monday, with most active December settling at its highest level in nearly two months, on heavy speculative buying, market sources said.

Leftover short covering from Friday's rally gave the market a jump start early on, and data showing a sharp increase in open interest on December encouraged further buying by the funds, traders said.

December broke through technical resistance at $1,350 and $1,357, a chart top from two weeks ago. Traders said today's gains marked the end of a bottoming pattern begun in July, with the next technical objective seen at $1,422, a high from early June.

But traders cautioned that prospects for a record West African cocoa crop continued to hang over the market and could halt the run below $1,400.

No notices were issued against the spot September position for the second consecutive day, prompting another round of short covering by the trade.

September surged $41 a tonne, to close at its intraday high of $1,345. December shot up $33, to $1,367, a shade below its high of $1,369. Volume was estimated at 13,251 lots.-Reuter