NEW YORK/LONDON: New York cocoa futures on ICE resumed their rally on Friday, rising to a 10-month high and marking their biggest weekly jump since May after chart-based buy signals strengthened, while raw sugar rose to a three-month peak.

March New York cocoa settled up $27, or 1.2 percent, at $2,212 per tonne, after peaking at $2,226, the highest for the second position since Jan. 19.

It closed the week up 7.6 percent, the strongest weekly performance in six months.

Total open interest dropped by nearly 25,000 contracts within five sessions to a 2-1/2-month low at 242,680 contracts on Thursday, exchange data showed.

Technical buying gathered momentum after the 50-day moving average crossed above the 200-day moving average on Monday, forming a bullish “golden cross” pattern, traders said.

Dealers also pointed to fund short covering against the backdrop of concerns that production may fall in top grower Ivory Coast while demand appears to be rising, particularly in Asia.

“Some say black pod, etc, is going to reduce output, but others are looking for a reasonably good crop,” one dealer said, adding that there was also plenty of cocoa left over from last year’s record crop.

December London cocoa settled up 10 pounds, or 0.6 percent, at 1,642 pounds per tonne.

March raw sugar settled up 0.08 cent, or 0.5 percent, at 14.96 cents per lb, after rising to 14.99 cents, the highest since Aug. 1. It closed the week up 4 percent.

Dealers awaited cane crushing data for Center-South Brazil, provisionally expected on Monday.

A survey of analysts by S&P Global Platts saw a CS Brazil cane crush for the second half of October at 29.68 million tonnes, down 8.4 percent from the prior two weeks.

March white sugar settled down 30 cents, or 0.08 percent, at $389.30 per tonne.

December arabica coffee settled up 1.15 cent, or 0.9 percent, at $1.2755 per lb. The spot contract closed the week up 2.9 percent, the strongest weekly performance since mid-September.

Total open interest fell to 228,113 lots on Thursday, down nearly 18,000 lots from the record high set on Nov. 1 at 245,897 lots as prices rose 3.6 percent, ICE data showed.

Dealers said the slow pace of Brazil coffee exports underpinned prices.

January robusta coffee settled down $8, or 0.4 percent, at $1,816 per tonne, just above Wednesday’s 14-month low of $1,799.—Reuters