Most-active March ended $2 firmer at $853 a tonne after trading $862 to $845, another new lifetime low. Front-month December lost $1 to $805 after trading between $816 and a new life-of-contract low of $797. London cocoa futures ended down after setting fresh life-of-contract lows during the afternoon session as speculative and origin selling continued. December last traded seven stg lower at 548 stg a tonne.

Floor traders said origin selling and speculative liquidation pushed New York values to fresh lows in the early going. "There was origin selling and also some December selling by the spec. Origin you know, they sell every day, they're in there," one floor source said. Active March hit a new lifetime low of $845, its lowest level since March 1993, while front December briefly broke the key $800 support level, dipping to a low of $797.

As operators roll out of the December contract ahead of first notice day next week, open interest continued to decline, falling 1,735 lots to 20,809, rising 2,000 to 27,110 lots in active March. Prices bounced straight off the lows and spent most of the rest of the trading session in the upper half of their trading range, before a wave of profit taking brought them off.

Traders said that industry scale down buying and commission house buying in March contract helped to support the market. "Manufacturers stepped it up a little and came in and did some pretty good buying in March, May and a touch in July," one broker said. Chartwise, near-term support for the CSCE December contract was seen at $800-797, then at the 1992 low of 785.

Overhead resistance is pegged at $816-820, then in the $835-45 area. The nine-day relative strength index (RSI) of December CSCE cocoa was unchanged and remained heavily oversold at 17 late on Tuesday.