Monday: China soy futures settle down; bleak price outlook 

 

 

China's soy futures traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled lower Monday as traders remained cautious amid macroeconomic pressure due to concerns over tightening monetary policy as well as a lack of positive news.

 

The benchmark September 2010 soy contract settled down RMB15, or 0.4%, at RMB3,800 a metric tonne.

 

The contract opened lower tracking a fall on the Chicago Board of Trade Friday and consolidated in the negative territory for the whole session.

 

The fall on CBOT Friday, local inflation concerns as well as supply pressure from the South American harvest all weighed on market sentiment.

 

Analysts said the market will continue to be in selling mood in the near term, before the likely start of speculation from the end of this month on U.S. new soy areas.

 

Meanwhile, a local news report quoted the agricultural committee in Heilongjiang province, China's largest soy producer, as saying that soy areas in the province this year will likely fall 7.9% to 4.3 million hectares due to competition from corn.

 

The trading volume of all soy contracts rose to 498,142 lots from 314,146 lots Friday.

 

Open interest rose 2,790 lots to 373,138 lots Monday.

 

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

 

The following are Monday'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      3,800          Down   15    234,818

Corn       Sep 2010      1,890            Up   14     99,272

Soymeal  Sep 2010      2,745          Down    4    642,190

Palm Oil  Sep 2010      6,848          Down   72    418,280

Soyoil     Sep 2010      7,462          Down   38    432,672