Tuesday: China soy futures settle down a tad; with metals, crude

 

 

Soy futures traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled marginally lower Tuesday, along with declines in metals and fuel oil futures in Shanghai.

 

The benchmark September 2010 soy contract settled RMB3 a metric tonne lower at RMB3,716/tonne.

 

Most commodity futures opened higher, but edged lower as crude oil gave up some of its overnight gains.

 

Some analysts said the exchange of fire between South Korean and North Korean naval vessels Tuesday may have caused some concerns about the stability of financial markets.

 

The agricultural market itself is in consolidation without clear guidance, so any news can be used as an excuse to trade on, said Shi Yan, an analyst with Xinhu Futures.

 

However, the market mostly shrugged off the news that China will require all canola imports be tested for blackleg--a fungal disease that impacts crop yields--allowing blackleg-positive shipments to be imported only at certain ports in non-canola-producing regions.

 

The market digested the news relatively easily as it has been aware that Canada and China were discussing ways to solve the problem. Canada is China's biggest provider of canola.

 

Trading volume of all soy contracts declined to 123,140 lots from 135,738 lots Monday.

 

Open interest fell 5,096 lots to 264,852 lots Tuesday.

 

Corn futures, soymeal futures, soyoil futures and palm oil futures all settled higher.

 

Following are Tuesday'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         Sep 2010      3,716        Dn    3        123,140

Corn        May 2010      1,740        Up    7       128,524

Soymeal  May 2010      2,858        Up    7        994,996

Palm Oil   May 2010      6,208        Up   20       215,110

Soyoil      May 2010      7,318        Up   22       713,702