Thursday: China soy futures settle down; CBOT fall plagues prices

 

 

Soy futures traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled lower Thursday, tracking an overnight fall on the Chicago Board of Trade.

 

The benchmark September 2010 soy contract settled RMB12 a metric tonne lower at RMB3,727/tonne.

 

The CBOT soy benchmark contract has been hovering around $10 a bushel without a breakthrough, and accelerated harvest progress in the US pressured prices.

 

Meanwhile, the long-expected government purchasing policy isn't out yet, and DCE traders are trading cautiously around RMB3,750/tonne until more favorable news pushes up prices, said analysts.

 

The September 2010 contract is well supported at RMB3,700/tonne with resistance at RMB3,770/tonne in the near term, said Tianqi Futures in its note.

 

Trading volume for all soy contracts declined to 121,234 lots from 224,936 lots Wednesday.

 

Open interest fell 5,134 lots to 272,018 lots.

 

Corn futures and soyoil futures settled lower and soymeal futures settled unchanged, while palm oil futures settled higher.

 

The weak dollar and crude oil's recovery to above $80 a barrel overnight lent some support to vegetable oil futures, said analysts.

 

Thursday's settlement prices in yuan a metric tonne for benchmark contracts and the volume for all contracts in lots (One lot is equivalent to 10 tonnes):

 

               Contract   Settlement Price  Change     Volume

Soy         Sep 2010      3,727        Dn   12       121,234

Corn        May 2010      1,735        Dn    2        29,266

Soymeal  May 2010      2,853        Unch          780,056

Palm Oil   May 2010      6,136        Up   20       190,302

Soyoil      May 2010      7,280        Dn   24       488,862