Friday: China soy futures settle down; off lows on short-covering
Soy futures on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled slightly lower Friday, following a tumble on the Chicago Board of Trade overnight.
CBOT soy futures fell Thursday to their lowest levels in three weeks on broad-based commodity weakness and a lack of fresh supportive news.
"The hefty losses in CBOT last night sent negative cues to Dalian," and the expectation of ample supplies both at home and worldwide continued clouding market sentiment, said Gao Yanrong, an analyst at Dalu Futures in Shanghai.
The benchmark September soy contract settled RMB39 lower at RMB3,822 a metric tonne, off earlier lows on short-covering, along with broad gains in China commodities.
Trading volume on Dalian for all soy contracts fell to 227,864 lots from 318,296 lots Thursday.
With the annual session of the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference going on, analysts said they were paying close attention to any macroeconomic policy fine-tuning that could affect the markets.
"These days, a lot of attention is being paid to the macro economy; the fundamentals of commodities are playing only a minor role," said a trader at an international trading house in Beijing.
"Any modifications of policies here will affect the overseas markets, which in turn will send ripples to local futures prices," he added.
Corn, soymeal and soyoil futures also mostly settled lower. Palm oil futures settled up.
Friday'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 3,822 Dn 39 227,864
Corn Sep 2010 1,858 Dn 8 38,204
Soymeal Sep 2010 2,766 Dn 32 779,970
Palm Oil Sep 2010 6,966 Up 44 626,908
Soyoil Sep 2010 7,488 Dn 4 486,934
