Coffee price mixed

Coffee price mixed

LONDON (Reuter): Robusta coffee futures ended yesterday's morning session narrowly mixed with the front-month September holding firmer on short covering by commodity funds.

Traders said deferred months however took a tumble, pressured by some light origin selling particularly from Indonesia.

By the midday close, September stood $11 firmer at $1,606 a ton while November eased US$4 to $1,575.

Overall volume on the exchange was a light 985 lots.

Traders said judging from Friday's open interest movements that were published today, commodity funds rolled their short positions in September into November.

"It seems to be the funds rolling once again this morning," said one. "There was also some outright fund short covering."

The trader added, "The way they tend to do it was quite aggressive and distorted the switch in the market by pushing it out."

September's premium to November widened to $31 by the midday close from $16 at Friday's finish, reflecting the growing supply concerns for the spot month.