December 21, 2007

 

Friday: China soybean futures settle mostly higher on CBOT gains

 

 

Soybean futures traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled mostly higher Friday on the back of overnight gains in Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures.

 

The benchmark September 2008 soybean contract rose RMB22 to settle at RMB4,469 a metric tonne, after trading between RMB4,426/tonne and RMB4,503/tonne.

 

"There's not been much change in terms of fundamentals in the past few days, and we're just cautiously tracking CBOT amid lots of uncertainty regarding domestic policies," said Li Honglei, an analyst at Nanhua Futures.

 

Analysts said the bull run of agricultural commodities has led to stockpiling by traders ahead of the Chinese New Year starting earlier compared with the past few years. As a result, prices may begin to be pressured from early January.

 

"We've heard about railway transport limitations, which is also contributing to the current high prices," said Bao Jing, a soybean analyst with agricultural commodities consultancy Shanghai JC Intelligence Co.

 

The Chinese railway transport system usually struggles to meet a jump in demand ahead of the Chinese New Year, which falls in early February in 2008.

 

Corn futures settled little changed.

 

"It may continue sluggish trading for some time. The inventory is too high" so it lacks the momentum to climb up, but the overall bullish sentiment over agricultural commodities results in limited downside, said Nanhua's Li.

 

Friday's settlement prices in yuan a metric tonne and volume for all contracts in lots:

 

                Contract        Price      Change     Volume

Soybeans  Sep 2008      4,469      Up  22      498,044

Soymeal    Sep 2008      3,290      Dn  13    1,118,126

Soyoil       May 2008      9,792      Up  8        98,124

Corn         May 2008      1,724      Dn  2        211,262

Palm Oil    May 2008      8,766      Up  14       21,086