SOFTS-Sugar Climbs on Supportive Charts, Cold Snap in Brazil

(Reuters) –  Sugar futures on ICE rose on Wednesday, boosted by more supportive technicals and concerns about a cold snap in Brazil, while cocoa and coffee were little changed in thin trade.

Sugar

* October white sugar was up $3.10, or 0.79 percent, at $393.10 a tonne by 1127 GMT, correcting as technicals firmed and selling appetite waned.

* Prices fell in the previous session after failing to hold above the 40-day moving average.

* October raw sugar was up 0.07 cents, or 0.50 percent, at 14.17 cents per lb.

* Prices managed to close above the key 14 cent mark in the previous session, aided by a stronger Brazilian real, with dealers noting this improved the technical structure.

* Market participants were monitoring weather in top grower Brazil, where frosts in the Mato Grosso do Sul area were reported to have damaged some cane and low temperatures were forecast for parts of Parana.

* “Frost risk consequently remains,” said Tobin Gorey of Commonwealth Bank of Australia in a market note. “How much damage the frosts can do is unclear.”

Cocoa

* September London cocoa fell a marginal 1 pound, or 0.07 percent, to 1,511 pounds a tonne.

* September New York cocoa was also down $1, or 0.05 percent, at $1,910 a tonne.

* Cocoa processing in Asia increased 9.9 percent to 160,878 tonnes in the second quarter from a year earlier, data from the Cocoa Association of Asia (CAA) showed.

* However, grindings were down from the first quarter of the year, signalling a potential slowdown in processing in the region.

* Cocoa prices had climbed to a two-week top a day earlier on expectations of strong grind figure.

* Market focus shifted to North American grind figures due out on Thursday for further indications of demand. In the first quarter, grindings rose 1.15 percent year on year.

Coffee

* September robusta coffee was down $1, or 0.05 percent, at $2,130 per tonne.

* September arabica coffee slipped 0.30 cent, or 0.22 percent, to $1.346 per lb, but remained near a 6-1/2 week high touched this week.

* The market has steadily climbed in recent sessions as focus has shifted to potentially tighter supplies ahead.

* Dealers were also monitoring the cold weather in Brazil’s Parana state, a key coffee-growing region in the country.