March 25, 2008

 

Tuesday: China soybean futures settle sharply higher on CBOT rise

 

 

China's soybean futures traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled sharply higher Tuesday, following strong overnight gains at the Chicago Board of Trade.

 

The benchmark January 2009 soybean contract settled RMB125 higher, or 3%, at 4,230 a metric tonne, after trading between RMB4,175/tonne and RMB4,276/tonne.

 

Weakness in the U.S. economy helped to support the commodities market, as funds returned to the market.

 

The market is unlikely to tumble after the recent big fluctuation, while the sentiment is recovering, said a local trader.

 

Effective from Tuesday, the limit-up and limit-down of domestic soybean futures, soymeal futures, soyoil futures and palm oil futures traded on DCE have been temporarily raised to 5% of their respective settlement prices in the previous session, up from 4%.

 

The minimum guaranteed money for these contracts was also raised to 7% of each contract's value, up from 5%.

 

The changes are due to the recent volatility in prices, DCE said.

 

The earlier tumble was overdone, and the market may consolidate and rebound from the fall in the near term, said Huang Xiao, a manager at Capital Futures.

 

Palm oil futures, soyoil futures and soymeal futures all settled higher while corn futures settled slightly lower.

 

Tuesday's settlement prices in yuan a metric tonne and volume for all contracts in lots (One lot is equivalent to 10 tonnes):

 

               Contract      Settlement Price  Change     Volume

Soybean  Jan 2009      4,230         Up     125      1,026,220

Corn        Sep 2008      1,775        Dn     5          687,788

Soymeal  Sep 2008      3,282        Up     79         538,364

Palm Oil   May 2008     10,292       Up    122        64,274

Soyoil      Sep 2008     10,892        Up     8         776,338