Friday: China soy futures up a tad; CBOT, local cash prices rise

 

 

Soy futures rose slightly on the Dalian Commodity Exchange Friday, following Chicago Board of Trade and broad commodities complex gains, as local spot prices and equity markets also found room to rise.

 

The benchmark May soy contract settled up 0.2% at RMB3,754 a metric tonne.

 

Expectations that the government will soon decide on a soy stockpile price that will likely be higher than last year's RMB3,700/tonne lent support to the market, said Li Xiaoli, soy analyst with Beite Futures.

 

The government has committed to buying more soy in the new crop year as a price buffer, but has not yet announced the purchase price.

 

Cool, wet weather in the U.S. along with strengthening oil prices provided further support to buying sentiment, Li said.

 

"Demand is still quite stable," she added.

 

Prices of Chicago Board of Trade soy contracts strengthened in electronic trading during Asian hours Friday, finding a foothold in weather-related harvest delays.

 

"The (U.S.) harvest window has once again closed temporarily with forecasts of rainfall expected to continue into the weekend," Barclays Capital said in a note late Thursday.

 

Forecasts for continued bouts of rain over the coming weeks are likely to provide support to prices, raising supply uncertainty, the bank said.

 

Corn, palm oil, soyoil and soymeal futures also rose Friday on the Dalian exchange.

 

Friday's settlement prices in yuan a metric 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      3,754        Up      7         246,888

Corn       May 2010      1,747        Up      2          87,544

Soymeal  May 2010      2,871        Up     20       1,586,870

Palm Oil   May 2010      6,236        Up     82        274,740

Soyoil      May 2010      7,340        Up     92       1,212,792