Thursday: China soy futures settle up, show signs of stabilizing

 

 

Soy futures on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled higher Thursday, showing signs of stabilizing after their Chicago Board of Trade counterparts rose above $10 a bushel overnight.

 

The benchmark September 2010 soy contract settled RMB24 higher at RMB3,953 a metric tonne.

 

The contract opened higher and consolidated within a tight range of RMB3,934-RMB3,975/tonne during the session.

 

A much stronger performance in metals and weakening dollar in Asian trading helped sentiment in agricultural products.

 

But expected higher soy output in South America and light trading ahead of the Christmas holiday curbed the rise in soy and soy products, said analysts.

 

"DCE soy are unlikely to rise much before any effective rise on CBOT sets in," said a local analyst.

 

Trading volume for all soy contracts declined to 279,956 lots from 402,744 lots Wednesday.

 

Open interest fell 5,806 lots to 364,084 lots.

 

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

 

Feedmeal prices are unlikely to fall much ahead of the New Year holiday, said analysts.

 

Breeding costs are expected to rise next year as corn prices are likely to rise further due to the government's higher grain purchase prices, said Chen Weisheng, inspector of the Ministry of Agriculture's farming department, during a media presser Thursday.

 

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      3,953        Up   24    279,956

Corn       Sep 2010      1,851        Up    1     44,096

Soymeal  Sep 2010      2,966        Up   24  1,219,078

Palm Oil  Sep 2010      6,858        Up   84    439,178

Soyoil     Sep 2010      7,712        Up   54    877,306