March 19, 2010

 

Friday: China soy futures settle higher; CBOT buoys sentiment

 

 

Soy futures settled higher on the Dalian Commodity Exchange Friday as stronger soy prices on the Chicago Board of Trade bolstered sentiment.

 

The benchmark September soy contract settled 0.5% higher at RMB3,862 a tonne. The market opened steady before moving into positive territory, encouraged by a fourth straight session of gains on CBOT overnight.

 

Dalian soy futures are likely to trade within the recent range next week as fresh cues from supply-and-demand fundamentals are scarce, while traders are cautious ahead of key U.S. agriculture data due later in the month, analysts said.

 

The U.S. Department Of Agriculture is scheduled to issue its initial forecast for planting areas of major crops at the end of March.

 

Many in the market are expecting soy growing area in the U.S. to remain relatively steady compared with last year, while the market has already factored in recent concerns over high supply from South America, indicating prices will remain supported around current levels ahead of the data release.

 

Trading volume of all soy contracts rose to 276,110 lots on Friday from 151,276 lots on Thursday.

 

Open interest fell 2,534 lots to 350,704 lots Friday.

 

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

 

Friday's settlement prices in yuan a 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          3,862       Up   20           276,110

Corn                  Sep 2010         1,903        Up    9             62,254

Soymeal            Sep 2010         2,826        Up   32        1,386,264

Palm Oil             Sep 2010         6,872        Up   16           251,506

Soyoil                Sep 2010         7,466        Up    6            307,016