Demand for sugar may be reviving in the Egyptian commodities market, said dealers who noted signs for the coming week.

"There's some spec short covering with the dollar weaker," said Nick Hungate, Executive Director of Rabobank. "Physical buying has picked up in the past few days."

Earlier, May white sugar futures jumped four per cent to a session high of $553.00 per tonne on Friday on investor short covering, as the market began to rebuild after a steep setback in the commodity's prices in the past month.

Queensland Sugar, which sells most of Australia's sugar to overseas customers, sold raw sugar to Chinese buyers, trade sources said on Friday.

Guatemala is seeking to import up to 100,000 tonnes of sugar to stop domestic sugar prices from spiking. Raw sugar futures had slid more than 35 per cent from a 29-year peak touched on February 1. Benchmark May raw sugar on ICE was up 0.63 cent, or 3.3 per cent, to 19.90 cents a pound at 1217 GMT.

London (Liffe) May white sugar was up $16.1, or three per cent, at $547.80 per tonne in moderate volume of 1,676 lots.