Spread activity and AAs (Against Actuals) contributed to much of the day's trade, dealers said.
Front month December settled down $3.3 at $298.2 per tonne in volume of 3,356 lots after trading from $295.4 to $301.9.
"There has been some profit-taking but I think people are waiting for it to come down and then they will buy again," a dealer said. "New York struggled to get to 12 (cents a lb)."
Raw sugar on the New York Board of Trade finished near session lows but was still close to the highest in over seven years. NYBOT's March closed 1.4 percent down at 11.63 cents after reaching a session high of 11.86, the contract's top price in almost two weeks.
March concluded down $2.3 at $305.7 per tonne in volume of 1,892 lots, having moved from $303.5 to $307.5.
"Some AAs were placed, and there was a fair bit of spread trading on December-March," one trader said. Traders said there may have been some arbitrage and that the white sugar premium had narrowed from last week to $45-46.
Coffee rises
London coffee inched up on Monday in mainly spread-focused trade against a background of nervousness about supply because of recent storm damage to crops and potential for fund short-covering, dealers said.
Liffe's most-active January finished $9 stronger at $984 a tonne on turnover of 3,560 lots in a $974-985 price bracket. Total volume was 8,847 lots after front-month November shifted 3,246 lots between $951 and $964.
As Hurricane Wilma lashes southern Florida on Monday, the coffee trade is bracing for what could be another setback for the supply of unroasted beans in the largest coffee consuming nation, industry sources said.
Cocoa up
London cocoa rose to its highest close in more than a week because exports from Ivory Coast remain blocked just as political tension in the West African country heightens, dealers said.
Liffe's front-month December rose 2.7 percent, or 22 pounds, to end at 843 pounds a tonne after fund buying in the New York market helped London prices to pick up.
The December contract moved 3,875 lots in an 819-844 pound range. Overall turnover was 6,929 lots. Ivory Coast heads towards a politically charged watershed on Sunday, when President Laurent Gbagbo reaches the end of his constitutional term.