January 28, 2008

 

Canadian rapeseed contracts up but finds no takers

 

 

Rapeseed contracts traded on ICE Futures Canada were mixed Friday, with strength in the Chicago Board of Trade soy complex offset by an absence of fresh buying interest, market watchers said.

 

Support in rapeseed was associated with advances overnight in Malaysian palm oil and the general strength in the equity and energy markets, brokers said. Double-digit advances in CBOT soy values and modest gains in CBOT soyoil contributed to the strength in rapeseed.

 

The advances in rapeseed were being offset by the absence of fresh buying interest from the various sectors, traders said.

 

"There is no fresh export business to speak of and the domestic crushers have also backed away from the market," a broker said.

 

The gains in rapeseed were also being tempered by the renewed strength in the Canadian dollar, traders said. They noted that with the appreciation of the dollar, rapeseed was being viewed as overvalued.

 

Light speculative selling also was tempering the upside in rapeseed, brokers said.

 

An estimated 4,472 rapeseed contracts traded at 10:31 a.m. CST. Some 1,896 were spread related.

 

At 10:32 a.m. CST, no feed wheat contracts had traded while 10 western barley futures had changed hands.

 

Some minor support in barley was coming from the advances seen in CBOT corn futures and from light end-user pricing, brokers said.