January 11, 2007

 

Thursday: China soybean futures settle mostly up on CBOT; corn up

 

 

Soybean futures traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled mostly higher Thursday, tracking overnight gains on the Chicago Board of Trade.

 

The most widely held May 2007 contract settled RMB24 higher at RMB2,838 a metric tonne, after trading between RMB2,825/tonne and RMB2,846/tonne.

 

Total trading volume fell to 70,404 lots from 74,836 lots Wednesday.

 

One lot is equivalent to 10 tonnes.

 

Market participants chose to stand on the sidelines before Friday's U.S. Department of Agriculture (crop) reports, while rolling positions from the May contract to the September contract," an analyst in Shanghai said.

 

"Domestic fundamentals meanwhile remained weak, mainly pressured by sluggish feed demand," he added.

 

Soymeal and soyoil futures settled mostly higher, along with soybean futures.

 

The benchmark May 2007 soymeal contract rose RMB20 to settle at RMB2,337/tonne, after trading between RMB2,323/tonne and RMB2,347/tonne.

 

The benchmark May 2007 soyoil contract settled RMB33 higher at RMB6,615/tonne.

 

Dalian's corn futures settled higher, tracking overnight CBOT corn futures.

 

The most active September 2007 contract gained RMB28 to settle at RMB1,694/tonne, after trading between RMB1,683/tonne and RMB1,705/tonne.

 

Trading volume for all corn contracts rose to 1,009,858 lots from 699,110 lots Wednesday.

 

"Corn is subject to a downward correction on charts, while farmers have been speeding up their sales, which might further pressure prices," said Zhang Yifan, an analyst at China Grains & Oils Group Feed Corp.