March 4, 2009

China's soybean futures traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled higher Wednesday amid growing optimism for the country's economy as the country's annual parliamentary meeting unfolds.

 

The benchmark September 2009 soybean contract gained 0.7% to settle at RMB3,412 a metric tonne.

 

Soybean prices may stay in a consolidation pattern in coming sessions, in a RMB3,300-RMB3,600/tonne trading range on chart-based cues, analysts said.

 

Buying sentiment was largely buoyed by the annual parliamentary meeting, and "a strong equities market also gave some support to soybean prices," said Gao Yanrong, an analyst with Dalu Futures.

 

Analysts said market players will be eyeing a U.S. Department of Agriculture supply-and-demand report that will be released next week, but they don't expect the report to provide bullish cues.

 

"The Ag Outlook Forum held last week didn't present inspiring projections for the market, so we don't expect the (USDA) report to be any better," said Gao.

 

Trading volume of all soybean contracts declined to 312,306 lots from 329,388 lots Tuesday.

 

Open interest fell 12,104 lots to 335,538 lots Wednesday.

 

All other agricultural products settled higher, in line with soybean's gains.

 

Wednesday'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

Soybean         Sep 2009         3,412         Up   40      297,912

Corn              Sep 2009         1,683          Up   7         90,044

Soymeal         Sep 2009         2,469         Up   52      814,866

Palm Oil         May 2009          5,078         Up   26       33,980

Soyoil            Sep 2009          5,944         Up   54      225,696