Monday: China soy futures settle up along with outside markets

 

 

Soy futures traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled higher Monday, rising with external markets amid widespread gains in global commodities and equities.

 

The benchmark September 2010 soy contract settled up RMB14, or 0.4%, at RMB3,836 a metric tonne.

 

Gains in metals and equities markets helped sentiment toward agricultural products, but funds didn't show any strong willingness to enter the market due to a lack of positive supply-and-demand news, Galaxy Futures said in a note.

 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is scheduled to issue its monthly crop supply and demand reports Wednesday, and the market is likely to trade cautiously ahead of them, analysts said.

 

However, global and Chinese soy prices are low at present, and are unlikely to fall much this year as record high harvests in South America have largely been priced into soy futures, Ning Gaoning, chairman of major Chinese grain trader COFCO Ltd., said over the weekend.

 

China's soy consumption, including demand from both the feedmeal and edible oil sectors, will be strong this year, helping to support prices, Ning said on the sidelines of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

 

Trading volume of all soy contracts declined to 221,448 lots from 227,864 lots Friday.

 

Open interest rose 6,840 lots to 371,590 lots Monday.

 

Corn futures, soyoil futures, soymeal futures and palm oil futures all settled higher.

 

Following are Monday'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      3,836        Up   14    221,448

Corn       Sep 2010      1,865        Up    7     30,092

Soymeal  Sep 2010      2,785        Up   19    663,758

Palm Oil  Sep 2010      7,014        Up   48    514,496

Soyoil     Sep 2010      7,532        Up   44    477,702