August 17, 2007

 

Friday: China soybean futures settle down on CBOT fall, US market concerns

 

 

Soybean futures traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled lower Friday, tracking similar falls on the Chicago Board of Trade overnight.

 

The benchmark May 2008 soybean contract settled RMB48 lower at RMB3,518 a metric tonne.

 

Total trading volume rose to 544,210 lots from 310,014 lots Thursday. One lot is equivalent to 10 tonnes.

 

CBOT soybean futures ended sharply lower Thursday, plunging on speculative selling tied to global economic worries and improved weather conditions for pod-filling U.S. soybeans.

 

However, some analysts said domestic commodities market were overreacting to the impact of U.S. mortgage companies woes.

 

"It's more of a psychological impact, and domestic agricultural products shouldn't have reacted that much," said Fang Xiangmin, research manager at Changjiang Futures.

 

Soymeal futures and soyoil futures settled lower.

 

The benchmark January 2008 soymeal contract settled RMB64 lower at RMB2,711/tonne, and the benchmark January 2008 soyoil contract settled RMB264 lower at RMB7,904/tonne.

 

Soyoil futures fell by the 4% limit during the session, dragged lower by tumbling crude oil prices.

 

Crude oil futures ended at a six-week low Thursday as global stock markets continued to slide on credit market turmoil and as storm threats to Gulf of Mexico oil production eased.

 

But analysts said there is limited room for further declines in domestic soyoil prices after the recent falls.

 

Anyway, domestic oils stocks will be at very low levels this year on reduced rapeseed oil output and sluggish soymeal demand, said a local trader.

 

Corn futures settled lower.

 

The benchmark May 2008 contract settled RMB10 lower at RMB1,556/tonne.

 

Trading volume for all corn contracts declined to 617,776 lots from 644,706 lots Thursday.