Tuesday: China soy futures settle steady; continuing consolidation

 

 

China's soy futures traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled slightly higher Tuesday, continuing to consolidate as Chicago Board of Trade counterparts failed to lend support.

 

The benchmark September 2010 soy contract settled 0.2%, higher at RMB3,951 a metric tonne, after closing in negative territory.

 

The contract opened lower, in tandem with a 1.1% fall for soy futures traded on CBOT overnight, and edged higher during the session, but a sudden fall for domestic equities weighed on sentiment.

 

CBOT soy are unlikely to fall too much ahead of the year-end holidays, as trading will be very light and prices will likely consolidate in the $10.00-$10.50-per bushel range, said Galaxy Futures in its note. At 0829 GMT, January soy were trading at $10.05/bushel, up 4 cents on e-CBOT.

 

Analysts said the comparatively strong physical fundamentals of soy in China that have undergirded relatively strong DCE prices means there is only limited room for the contracts to fall further, with broad support in the RMB3,900-RMB4,000/tonne range.

 

China's soy imports in November fell 13% compared with last November, to 2.89 million metric tonnes, the General Administration of Customs said Tuesday. In the January-November period, soy imports rose 11% to 37.77 million tonnes.

 

Analysts expect the country's soy imports in December and January to jump to around 5 million tonnes and 4 million tonnes, respectively, on the back of rising demand.

 

Trading volume of all soy contracts rose to 457,414 lots from 389,776 lots Monday.

 

Open interest fell 5,106 lots to 383,142 lots Tuesday.

 

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

 

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      3,951        Up    6      457,414

Corn       Sep 2010      1,859        Dn    5       55,546

Soymeal  Sep 2010      2,956        Dn    5    1,344,712

Palm Oil  Sep 2010      6,838        Dn   62     397,266

Soyoil     Sep 2010      7,724        Dn   42     820,028