January 25, 2006

 

Wednesday: China soybean futures settle mixed in subdued trading

 

 

China's Dalian Commodity Exchange soybean futures settled mixed Wednesday amid subdued trading, as many investors remained on the sidelines after liquidating most of their positions ahead of the week-long market holiday next week.

 

The benchmark May 2006 soybean contract inched up RMB2 a metric tonne to RMB2,685/tonne, after trading between RMB2,671/tonne and RMB2,696/tonne.

 

Trading volume in the Dalian soybean futures market declined to 159,880 lots from 177,402 lots Tuesday.

 

One lot is equivalent to 10 tonnes.

 

"As the Lunar New Year holiday is approaching, risk-averse investors won't return to the market for the rest of this week...So we may probably see even thinner trading in coming sessions," said a Shanghai-based trader.

 

The No. 2 soybean contracts, which can be delivered with soybeans harvested from genetically-modified crops, settled slightly lower on light speculative selling.

 

The benchmark September 2006 contract slid RMB1/tonne to RMB2,565/tonne, after trading between RMB2,561/tonne and RMB2,578/tonne.

 

Soyoil futures settled mixed in range-bound trading.

 

The benchmark September 2006 soyoil contract settled unchanged at RMB5,051/tonne, after trading between RMB5,030/tonne and RMB5,076/tonne.

 

Dalian's soymeal futures settled mixed, tracking subdued trading in other grains futures.

 

The benchmark May 2006 soymeal contract rose a slight RMB2/tonne to settle at RMB2,297/tonne, after trading between RMB2,275/tonne and RMB2,314/tonne.

 

Meanwhile, corn futures traded on the exchange settled higher on speculative buying, as prices have hovered at low levels in the past two weeks.

 

The most actively traded September 2006 contract gained RMB32/tonne to RMB1,414/tonne, after trading between RMB1,385/tonne and RMB1,435/tonne.