Thursday: China soy futures settle marginally higher; funds buying

 

 

Soy futures traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled marginally higher Thursday, led by slightly greater gains soyoil and soymeal prices due to local inflation expectations and cues from technical charts.

 

The benchmark September 2010 soy contract settled RMB5 a metric tonne higher at RMB3,804/tonne.

 

Buying by funds edged the contract higher. They ignored an overnight decline on the Chicago Board of Trade on technical cues and in anticipation of seasonal pressure on prices ahead of the year-end holidays.

 

"The CBOT (benchmark soy contract last month) broke through the $9.30 (per bushel) resistance, and prices may rise further if it breaks the $10.30 and $10.50 resistance level," said Yuan Jianbin, an analyst with Guangfa Futures.

 

Around 0700 GMT, January CBOT soy were up four cents in electronic trading at $10.31/bushel, after closing down 2.50 cents Wednesday.

 

However, soy supply-demand fundamentals remain negative due to likely record high global output in 2009-2010, analysts said.

 

A downward correction is likely to be seen on the DCE in coming sessions, they said.

 

Trading volume of all soy contracts declined to 160,852 lots from 236,868 lots Wednesday.

 

Open interest fell 4,058 lots to 255,840 lots Thursday.

 

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

 

Following Thursday'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      3,804        Up     5        160,852

Corn       May 2010      1,767       Up     5        124,532

Soymeal  Sep 2010      2,919       Up    33     2,048,130

Palm Oil  May 2010      6,488       Up    24       240,030

Soyoil     Sep 2010      7,706       Up    32      1,403,512