October 28, 2005

 

Friday: China soybean futures settle mostly lower; soymeal,corn down

 

 

Soybean futures on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled mostly lower in range-bound, pre-weekend trade.

 

Uneventful overnight trading in Chicago Board of Trade soybeans also didn't provide many cues for the local market, said some analysts.

 

The benchmark May 2006 contract edged down RMB1 to settle at RMB2,741 a metric tonne Friday, after trading in a narrow range of RMB2,735-RMB2,749/tonne.

 

For the week, the benchmark lost RMB36/tonne.

 

"Technically, the benchmark is expected to consolidate between RMB2,700/tonne and RMB2,750/tonne in the short term, after wide swings in the past week on bird flu worries," one analyst said.

 

Total trading volume in soybeans fell to 218,700 lots from 252,244 lots Thursday. One lot is equivalent to 10 tonnes.

 

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

 

However, the May 2006 No. 2 contract gained RMB7 to settle at RMB2,717/tonne on small-lot buying. It traded between RMB2,711/tonne and RMB2,724/tonne.

 

Dalian soymeal futures settled mostly lower, but losses were limited by bouts of buying.

 

The benchmark May 2006 contract gave up RMB3 to settle at RMB2,375/tonne, after trading between RMB2,366/tonne and RMB2,387/tonne.

 

Corn futures on the Dalian exchange settled mostly lower on slight long liquidation in near-month contracts and short selling in forward-month contracts.

 

The most heavily traded January 2006 contract settled flat at RMB1,230/tonne, after trading between RMB1,226/tonne and RMB1,237/tonne.

 

The most widely held May 2006 contract lost RMB7 to settle at RMB1,273/tonne.

 

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