October 27, 2005

 

Thursday: China soybean futures settle mostly down; soymeal, corn up

 

 

Soybean futures on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled mostly lower Thursday, following an overnight fall in Chicago Board of Trade soybeans.

 

However, most local contracts recovered some of their intraday losses as bargain-hunting emerged in the local market after sharp declines in the past few trading days.

 

The benchmark May 2006 contract fell RMB3 to settle at RMB2,742 a metric tonne, after trading between RMB2,727 and RMB2,751/tonne.

 

Total trading volume in soybeans fell slightly to 252,244 lots from 257,844 lots Wednesday. One lot is equivalent to 10 tonnes.

 

"Bargain-hunting emerged during the day, especially for soymeal futures, as the markets have been oversold in the past week or so, due to bird flu worries," one analyst said.

 

Trading of No. 2 soybean contracts, which are encouraged to be delivered with imported genetically modified crops but are seldom traded, settled mixed.

 

The May 2006 No. 2 contract lost RMB16 to settle at RMB2,710/tonne, after trading between RMB2,700 and RMB2,725/tonne.

 

Dalian's soymeal futures settled mostly higher on aggressive buying and trading was more active than for soybeans.

 

Analysts said speculative buying returned to the market after bird flu concerns dragged the market to low levels not seen in months.

 

The benchmark May 2006 contract gained RMB10 to settle at RMB2,378/tonne, after trading between RMB2,355/tonne and RMB2,391/tonne.

 

Corn futures on the Dalian exchange settled mostly higher, encouraged by gains in soymeal.

 

The most heavily traded January 2006 contract edged up RMB2 to settle at RMB1,230/tonne, after trading between RMB1,227 and RMB1,234/tonne.

 

China's futures trading is off-limits to foreign investors.