Friday: China soy futures settle tad up, but metals weigh on prices

 

 

China's soy futures traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled a tad higher Friday, with the tumble in metals weighing on prices during the session.

 

The benchmark September 2010 soy contract settled RMB3, or 0.08%, higher at RMB3,868 a metric tonne.

 

The contract opened slightly higher, but began edging lower from noon tracking a huge fall in the metals market.

 

The expected high South America soy output remained a negative factor; U.S. soy are likely to trend lower in the near term without any concrete favorable factors, Galaxy Futures said in a note.

 

Soyoil and soymeal are taking turns in posting declines, offsetting the effect of purchases of soy, said analysts.

 

However, there is limited room for agricultural products to fall further due to the government's supportive policies, and prices will likely consolidate ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday in mid-February, they added.

 

The trading volume of all soy contracts declined to 264,038 lots from 412,590 lots Thursday.

 

The open interest fell 13,544 lots to 332,242 lots Friday.

 

Corn futures settled little changed but soyoil and palm oil futures settled higher, while soymeal futures settled lower.

 

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

 

Product   Contract  Settlement Price  Change     Volume

 

Soy        Sep 2010      3,868        Up    3        264,038

Corn       Sep 2010      1,850        Up    1       83,540

Soymeal  Sep 2010      2,803      Down  10    561,676

Palm Oil  Sep 2010      6,714        Up   30      722,512

Soyoil     Sep 2010      7,328        Up    8       726,664