Thursday: China soy futures settle down on weakness in CBOT, other markets

 

 

China's soy futures traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled lower Thursday, following the overnight fall at the Chicago Board of Trade.

 

The benchmark September 2010 soy contract settled RMB74 a metric tonne lower at RMB3,996/tonne, down 1.8%.

 

The contract opened lower, and fell below the supportive level of RMB4,000/tonne during the morning session.

 

The downward correction in CBOT and a fall in other markets, including crude oil and metals, encouraged long position holders to take profit after a recent surge.

 

Long position holders actively reduced their open interest at RMB4,000/tonne after seeing a lack of upward momentum, said Gao Yanrong, an analyst with Dalu Futures.

 

The large volume of soy imports also helped to weigh on prices, said analysts.

 

China's soy imports in December and January are likely to be 4.6 million to 4.8 million tonnes and 4 million to 4.5 million tonnes, respectively, the China National Grain and Oils Information Center said in a report issued Thursday.

 

The December import estimate is much higher than the Ministry of Commerce's earlier forecast of 3.87 million tonnes.

 

Trading volume of all soy contracts declined to 761,586 lots from 835,950 lots Wednesday.

 

Open interest fell 47,548 lots to 413,134 lots Thursday.

 

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

 

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      3,996        Dn     74     761,586

Corn       Sep 2010      1,867        Up      11     253,282

Soymeal  Sep 2010      2,951        Dn     48    1,676,438

Palm Oil  Sep 2010      6,840        Dn    100     402,350

Soyoil     Sep 2010      7,866        Dn     122   1,426,520