April 2, 2009
Thursday: China soy futures settle up; trade thin, focus on oil, meal
Soybean futures traded on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange settled slightly higher Thursday, as the market paused after the previous day's big gains.
The benchmark September 2009 soybean contract settled RMB4 a metric tonne higher at RMB3,583/tonne, or up 0.1%.
Trading was very light within a tight range of RMB3,572-RMB3,596/tonne, as the market focus is now not on soybeans, said a trader with China National Cereals Trade Corp.
Funds shifted into vegetable oil and soymeal futures on higher cash prices.
Trading volume of all soybean contracts declined to 159,644 lots from 316,164 lots Wednesday.
Open interest rose 574 lots to 322,458 lots Thursday.
Corn futures settled lower, while soymeal futures, soyoil futures and palm oil futures all settled higher.
Higher palm oil prices in Malaysia, pushed up by tight supply, and expectations of Chinese government purchases of rapeseed after this year's harvest helped to push up edible vegetable oil prices.
Following are Thursday'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
Soybean Sep 2009 3,583 Up 4 159,644
Corn Sep 2009 1,684 Dn 12 152,908
Soymeal Sep 2009 2,763 Up 15 1,028,740
Palm Oil Sep 2009 5,660 Up 62 259,192
Soyoil Sep 2009 6,450 Up 28 607,454
