January 6, 2006

 

Friday: China soybean futures settle mostly lower on CBOT

 

 

Soybean futures on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange settled lower Friday on CBOT losses, while soymeal remained attractive to speculative buyers, analysts said.

 

The benchmark May 2006 soybean contract settled RMB18 lower at RMB2,767 a metric tonne after trading between RMB2,745/tonne and RMB2,788/tonne.

 

The total trading volume for soybean futures on the Dalian exchange dropped to 261,826 lots from 310,332 lots Thursday. One lot is equivalent to 10 tonnes.

 

Soybean futures opened lower due to a lower settlement at CBOT, and although the spill-over from soymeal pulled up prices late in the afternoon, it failed to move into positive territory.

 

Most soymeal futures settled lower as well, with the benchmark May 2006 contract settling RMB4 lower at RMB2,418/metric tonne after trading between RMB2,386/tonne and RMB2,444/tonne.

 

Meanwhile, soymeal futures' total trading volume declined to 711,738 lots from 747,454 lots Thursday.

 

"Speculators are still optimistic about the market trend, so longs continued to buy, and thus soymeal ended higher, despite the low opening price," said Dong Shungen, an analyst with China International Futures Co.

 

Dong said an uptrend is expected in the short term, although consolidation next week may be inevitable.

 

Dalian's No. 2 soybean contracts, which are encouraged to be delivered with soybeans harvested from genetically modified crops, settled lower.

 

The most heavily traded September 2006 No. 2 soybean contract settled RMB18 lower at RMB2,759/tonne, after trading between RMB2,746/tonne and RMB2,783/tonne.

 

Corn futures traded on the exchange settled mostly lower, but the most widely held September 2006 contract rose RMB2 to settle at RMB1,388/tonne, after trading between RMB1,376/tonne and RMB1,396/tonne.