February 17, 2009
Tuesday: China soy futures settle down; markets likely to consolidate
China's soybean futures traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled lower Tuesday, and the market is likely to consolidate in the near term, said analysts.
The benchmark September 2009 soybean contract settled RMB36 lower at RMB3,474 a metric tonne, or down 1.0%.
Although the government's policies have been supportive to domestic agricultural products, market confidence is being tested by concerns over the uncertain global economic outlook, said Tianqi Futures.
Ample soybean stocks - of around 3.8 million tonnes - at Chinese ports helped cap the prices of imported soybeans, it added.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is scheduled to issue later this month a forecast on planting acreage for this year; it will also issue quarterly stocks at the beginning of next month.
The market is unlikely to see big movements ahead of the two reports, said a local grain official.
The trading volume of all soybean contracts rose to 390,948 lots from 339,616 lots Monday.
The opening interest rose 10,590 lots to 340,142 lots.
Corn futures settled little changed, while soybean meal, soybean oil and palm oil futures settled mostly lower.
Soy meal cash prices were much lower Tuesday on a sluggish feedmeal demand due to disease outbreaks, analysts said.
Soy oil prices got some support from weaker soy meal prices, as processing plants need to take advantage of soy oil prices to compensate for their soy meal losses.
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
Soybean Sep 2009 3,474 Dn 36 390,948
Corn Sep 2009 1,695 Up 1 185,092
Soymeal May 2009 2,682 Dn 66 675,982
Palm Oil May 2009 5,436 Dn 6 181,618
Soyoil May 2009 6,384 Dn 18 303,996
