August 4, 2009

China's soy futures traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled higher Tuesday, boosted by a steep rise in Chicago Board of Trade counterparts overnight.

 

The benchmark May 2010 soy contract settled RMB49 higher at RMB3,720 a metric tonne, up 1.3%.

 

Vegetable oil and oilseeds on the DCE opened higher tracking a surge in crude oil prices and the CBOT as well as a weak dollar Monday.

 

However, the benchmark contracts suffered from profit-taking soon after the opening, as CBOT's electronic trading in Asian time surrendered to a technical downward correction, while the market awaits the government's soy auction Wednesday, said Xiao Jun, an analyst with commodities consultancy firm Shanghai JCI.

 

But some analysts said as the big funds are shifting from front-month contracts to late-month contracts, it showed such profit-taking may be short-term.

 

The trading volume of all soy contracts rose to 417,230 lots from 335,976 lots Monday.

 

The open interest rose 1,592 lots to 212,338 lots Tuesday.

 

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

 

The government's ongoing regular corn sales have helped curb the rise in corn cash prices, while government policies will be crucial in guiding corn prices.

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

                                  
Contract       Settlement      Price         Change       Volume

Soy              May 2010       3,720        Up   49        417,230

Corn             May 2010      1,670         Dn    2          88,210

Soymeal       May 2010       2,981        Dn   24     2,119,454

Palm Oil        May 2010      6,426         Up   32        617,440

Soyoil           May 2010      7,578         Up   74        940,088