June 13, 2006

 

Tuesday: China soybean futures settle slightly lower; corn down

 

 

Soybean futures traded on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange settled slightly lower Tuesday on profit-taking after Monday's gains.

 

Big losses in other local commodities also weighed on the market, analysts and traders said.

 

The benchmark September 2006 soybean contract fell RMB8 to settle at RMB2,633 a metric tonne, after trading between RMB2,628/tonne and RMB2,645/tonne.

 

Trading volume for all soybean contracts fell slightly to 16,348 lots from 17,422 lots Monday.

 

One lot is equivalent to 10 tonnes.

 

No. 2 soybean contracts, which are encouraged to be delivered with soybeans harvested from genetically modified crops, settled mostly lower.

 

The benchmark September contract settled RMB4 lower at RMB2,525/tonne.

 

"In spite of the strong overnight gains on CBOT, the local market has already responded to the U.S. weather forecasts in the last session, so it lacks momentum to rise further," said Yu Junli, an analyst with Green Futures Co.

 

He added that given the oversupply situation in the local market, Dalian soybeans will continue to be weaker than CBOT, while other falling commodities are likely to intensify the downward pressure on prices.

 

Soymeal and soyoil futures settled mostly lower, in line with soybean futures.

 

The benchmark November 2006 soymeal contract settled RMB2 lower at RMB2,353/tonne, after trading between RMB2,343/tonne and RMB2,363/tonne.

 

Total trading volume rose to 403,366 lots from 268,860 lots Monday.

 

The most widely held September 2006 soyoil contract fell RMB20 to settle at RMB5,171/tonne.

 

Corn futures settled slightly lower. The benchmark March 2007 contract fell RMB13 to settle at RMB1,496/tonne, after trading between RMB1,489/tonne and RMB1,509/tonne.

 

Total trading volume for all corn contracts rose to 586,170 lots from 370,412 lots Monday.

 

"With sugar futures hitting limit-down, it had some spill-over effect on corn, since it is used to make starch sugar," Yu said.

 

China said earlier Tuesday that it will auction 552,000 tonnes of white sugar in June-to-September.