Tuesday: China soy futures down; focus on bearish fundamentals

 

 

Soy futures fell on the Dalian Commodity Exchange Tuesday as sellers shifted their attention to bearish fundamentals amid a lack of fresh supportive news.

 

The benchmark September soy contract settled RMB40 or 1.1% lower at RMB3,755 a metric tonne.

 

"There's little room for upside even with a supportive tonnee in government policies for agriculture, as most of that positive sentiment was already digested last week," said Gao Yanrong, an analyst with Dalu Futures.

 

Weaker domestic equity markets also influenced the mood at Dalian as agriculture investors face the prospect of tightening monetary policy and weaker fundamentals.

 

Soy futures on the Chicago Board of Trade were another factor dragging on Chinese counterparts, which closed lower Monday and then lost another 4 cents during Asian trading hours, as the prospect of growing global supplies weighed on prices.

 

Trading volume on Dalian for all soy contracts fell to 394,920 lots from 419,504 lots Monday.

 

Open interest rose 6,084 lots to 358,614 lots.

 

Soyoil, soymeal and palm oil futures settled lower, while the benchmark September corn futures contract was unchanged.

 

Tuesday'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      3,755        Dn   40     394,920

Corn       Sep 2010      1,847           Unch      75,540

Soymeal Sep 2010      2,709        Dn   28     907,788

Palm Oil  Sep 2010      6,582        Dn   18     464,172

Soyoil     Sep 2010      7,200        Dn   22     571,172