Coffee prices settled sharply lower on Friday after the Intercontinental Exchange raised margin requirements for trading coffee futures twice this week, drying up liquidity and prompting many commodity funds to close positions. September arabica coffee closed down 13.65 cents, or 3.92 percent, while September ICE robusta coffee fell 191 dollars, or 4.72 percent. The moves follow volatile swings that earlier saw arabica hit a five-and-a-half-month high and robusta a five-month high amid a delayed Brazilian harvest, now reported at 52 percent complete as of July 1, behind last year’s 60 percent. An excessively large fund long position in robusta, which weekly data showed rose by 5,607 lots to a more than two-year high of 44,195 net-long positions in the week ended July 7, can exacerbate any downturn. Supportive factors including falling ICE inventories, with arabica stocks at a two-and-a-quarter-year low of 344,269 bags, and concerns that a potentially strong El Niño could hurt Brazil’s next crop were overshadowed by the margin-driven sell-off.