August 15, 2007

 

Wednesday: China soybean futures settle mostly down on sharp CBOT fall

 

 

Soybean futures traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled mostly lower Wednesday following falls on the Chicago Board of Trade overnight.

 

The benchmark May 2008 soybean contract settled RMB6 lower at RMB3,609 a metric tonne.

 

Total trading volume declined to 345,398 lots from 526,774 lots Tuesday. One lot is equivalent to 10 tonnes.

 

CBOT soybean futures ended sharply lower Tuesday as beneficial rains moved toward drier areas of the central Midwest.

 

However, the recovery of domestic soymeal demand helped to support soybean prices, said traders.

 

The recent fall in crude oil prices pulled soyoil prices lower, which was also good news for soymeal, said Wang Xiaoguang, an analyst at Galaxy Futures.

 

Soymeal and soyoil are made by crushing soybeans, and the price fall of one product usually helps to support the other as processing plants need to make a profit.

 

Soymeal futures prices settle mixed and soyoil futures settled lower.

 

The benchmark January 2008 soymeal contract settled unchanged at RMB2,818/tonne, and the benchmark January 2008 soyoil contract settled RMB88 lower at RMB8,260/tonne.

 

Corn futures settled mostly higher.

 

The most heavily traded May 2008 contract settled RMB2 higher at RMB1,592/tonne.

 

Trading volume for all corn contracts rose to 659,662 lots from 581,514 lots Tuesday.