Thursday: China soy futures down, dogged by tighter credit fears

 

 

Soy futures fell marginally on the Dalian Commodity Exchange Thursday, with investors still nervous over signs that the government is stepping in to slightly tighten expansionary credit conditions.

 

The benchmark September soy contract settled RMB3 or 0.1% lower at RMB3,878 a metric tonne.

 

"The market talk on the bank loans issue is the single most important factor weighing on markets today," said Tu Xuan of Shanghai JC Intelligence Co.

 

Indications from people familiar with the matter were that Chinese regulators have told banks to stop new loans.

 

Trading volume on Dalian for all soy contracts fell to 278,876 lots from 344,834 lots Wednesday.

 

Open interest fell 8,880 lots to 346,748 lots.

 

Soyoil, palm oil and soymeal futures also fell Thursday, though corn futures were flat.

 

Thursday's settlement prices in yuan a metric tonne for benchmark contracts and volume for all contracts in lots (One lot is equivalent to 10 tonnes):

 

             Contract     Settlement Price  Change      Volume

Soy        Sep 2010      3,878        Dn    3     278,876

Corn       Sep 2010      1,892           Unch      85,252

Soymeal  Sep 2010      2,872        Dn   10     699,116

Palm Oil  Sep 2010      6,732        Dn   50     699,516

Soyoil     Sep 2010      7,376        Dn   38     953,588