April 21, 2008
Monday: China soybean futures settle down; CBOT soybean fall expected
Soybean futures traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled lower Monday on expectations Chicago Board of Trade soybean contracts will decline and spillover weakness of other domestic agricultural futures, analysts said.
The benchmark January 2009 soybean contract settled RMB91 lower at RMB4,118 a metric tonne, after trading between RMB4,071/tonne and RMB4,228/tonne.
"CBOT soybeans are facing technical resistance, and currently there seem to be no fresh fundamental news that can help breach the resistance," said Xu Wenjie, an analyst at Tianma Futures.
This, combined with limit-down sugar futures Monday, led to broad weakness in domestic agricultural futures in the session, Xu said.
Analysts said reports that sugar output in the Guangxi region will likely increase this year, despite an earlier estimate of a fall due to heavy snowfall in January-February, strongly impacted market sentiment, sparking the limit-down performance of sugar futures traded at the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange.
Soybean and soyoil futures settled sharply lower.
"Compared with soybeans, soyoil and soymeal are even more vulnerable to selloffs, as soybean inventories in the northeast are currently very low," said Xu Yulan, an analyst at Yong'an Futures.
Analysts said soyoil is facing seasonal weak demand, which could damp prices further as the government rolls out measures aimed at curbing the rise of food and vegetable oil prices.
Corn futures also settled down on broad weakness of agricultural commodities.
Monday's settlement prices in yuan a metric tonne and volume for all contracts in lots:
Contract Settlement Price Change Volume
Soybeans Jan 2009 4,118 Dn 91 1,841,130
Soymeal Sep 2008 3,322 Dn 82 619,520
Soyoil Sep 2008 11,312 Dn 442 422,072
Corn Jan 2009 1,915 Dn 23 716,694
Palm Oil Sep 2008 10,448 Dn 368 6,278
