November 2, 2007

 

Friday: China soybean futures settle down on falling crude oil prices

 

 

Soybean futures traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled mostly lower Friday on falling crude oil prices.

 

The benchmark May 2008 soybean contract settled RMB32 lower at 4,374 a metric tonne.

 

Total trading volume declined to 830,980 lots from 901,018 lots Thursday.

 

One lot is equivalent to 10 tonnes.

 

"Crude oil (prices), the foreign exchange rate and inflation are decisive factors for the prices of agricultural products," said Fu Jianjun, a researcher at Miracle China Futures Brokerage.

 

The Fed is unlikely to cut interest rates further after the recent cut, meaning commodities may face downward pressure as the dollar stops its fall, he added.

 

Concerns of the government's increasingly tightening monetary policies also helped to curb any further rise of agricultural products' prices, said some analysts.

 

The National Development and Reform Commission said the recent fuel price increases will likely add 0.05 percentage point to the year-on-year increases in the monthly consumer price index.

 

China's consumer price index growth reached 6.2% in September, a tad slower than 6.5% in August.

 

The newly-listed palm oil futures contracts settled mostly lower, with most contracts untraded.

 

The benchmark May 2008 palm oil contract settled at RMB8,540/tonne, down RMB66/tonne from Thursday.

 

Total trading volume for all palm oil futures declined to 3,576 lots from 4,002 lots Thursday.

 

Soymeal futures and soyoil futures settled lower.

 

The benchmark May 2008 soymeal contract settled RMB51 lower at RMB3,283/tonne, and the benchmark May 2008 soyoil contract settled RMB86 lower at RMB8,860/tonne.

 

Although soymeal cash prices have surged this week on rising soybean prices and soymeal futures prices, the demand for soymeal hasn't picked up significantly, said Heilongjiang Jiusan Oil and Fat Co.

 

Corn futures settled mostly higher.

 

The benchmark May 2008 contract settled RMB8 higher at RMB1,725/tonne.

 

Total trading volume for all corn futures rose to 1,044,898 lots from 615,316 lots Thursday.