Tuesday: China soy futures up on CBOT; drought fails to provide support

 

 

China's soy futures traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled higher Tuesday, along with the mild gain on the Chicago Board of Trade overnight.

 

The benchmark September 2010 soy contract settled up RMB13, or 0.3%, at RMB3,880 a metric tonne.

 

The contract opened higher, but then edged lower during the session as funds were exiting the market due to lack of favorable news.

 

The severe drought in the southwest failed to provide much support to the overall agricultural market, except for vegetable oil, as it isn't a major agricultural products growing area.

 

But the output of rapeseed and sugar cane, the major crops in the area, will be affected, said analysts.

 

The market is likely to be stable ahead of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's report on planting areas forecasts, which is to be released at the end of this month, said Yuan Jianbin, an analyst with Guangfa Futures.

 

Trading volume of all soy contracts declined to 219,050 lots from 222,592 lots Monday.

 

Open interest fell 4,708 lots to 341,672 lots Tuesday.

 

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

 

Following are Tuesday'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      3,880        Up   13    219,050

Corn       Sep 2010      1,911        Unch        56,512

Soymeal  Sep 2010      2,833        Up    4    637,970

Palm Oil  Sep 2010      6,916        Up    6    272,784

Soyoil     Sep 2010      7,514        Up   16    366,134