June 03, 2007	Sunday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 17, 1428

NEW YORK, June 2: Speculators in New York sugar futures turned into a net long, or bullish, position in the week to May 29 as prices of the sweetener hit a one-month peak, trade data released on Friday showed.

Futures positions in coffee, cotton and cocoa traded in New

York also gravitated towards the positive in the same week, the data from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission said.

Coffee saw a 23 per cent cut and cotton an 11 per cent reduction in net short, or bearish, bets, the CFTC said.

Cocoa witnessed a 7 per cent rise in net longs. For sugar, the CFTC said non commercial investors, or speculators, were net long on 4,081 lots on the New York Board of Trade (NYBOT) as of May 29, compared with a short of 18,602 lots in the week to May 22.

Open interest in NYBOT sugar rose to 973,398 lots from 941,869 in the same period, the CFTC said in its weekly Commitment of Traders report.

NYBOT raw sugar for July delivery hit 9.43 cents a lb. on May 25, its highest since an April 26 finish of 9.61 cents.

But institutional funds invested passively in NYBOT sugar through commodity indexes trimmed their net long positions in the week to May 29, the CFTC data showed.

These institutional funds -- falling under a category the CFTC calls Commodity Index Traders (CITs) -- represent pensions, endowments and other big pools of money that invest in commodities to diversify their portfolios. The CFTC has added to the category investment banks undertaking futures positions for clients.

The CITs' net long position for NYBOT sugar fell to 193,809 lots from a previous long of 195,525.

For NYBOT coffee, the net short position held by noncommercials declined to 9,544 lots from 12,468. Open interest rose to 209,880 lots from 208,191. CITs' net long position climbed to 41,197 lots from 40,683.

NYBOT's arabica coffee for July delivery hit a five-week high of $1.14 a lb. on May 24.

For NYBOT cotton, non commercials were net short on 7,155 lots, against 8,071 previously. Open interest in cotton rose to 327,102 lots from 323,998. CITs' net long position fell to 99,522 lots from 100,462.—Reuters