March 3, 2006

 

Friday: China soybean futures settle mostly up on CBOT; corn up

 

 

Most soybean futures on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange settled higher Friday, following speculative buying overnight on the Chicago Board of Trade, analysts said.

 

The benchmark September 2006 soybean contract opened higher in reaction to CBOT, settling up RMB32 at RMB2,746 a metric tonne after a range-bound trading session.

 

Total trading volume rose to 95,710 lots from 56,602 lots Thursday. One lot equals 10 tonnes.

 

Open interest for all contracts rose 982 lots to 274,286 lots.

 

"Soybeans didn't suddenly gain momentum from the negative fundamentals to rise, and either a big rise or fall isn't very likely (in the near future)," said Liu Xinghua, an analyst with Great Wall Futures Co.

 

Analysts said local fundamentals are basically bearish because of an oversupply, while speculators also dare not build up many short positions without a clear direction from CBOT.

 

Soymeal futures settled higher along with soybean futures. The benchmark September 2006 contract rose RMB37 to RMB2,366/tonne.

 

Open interest for all contracts fell 13,020 lots to 320,560 lots.

 

Soyoil futures also settled higher, though profit-taking by longs trimmed some gains during the session.

 

The benchmark September 2006 contract settled RMB29 higher at RMB5,307/tonne, after trading between RMB5,284 and RMB5,346/tonne.

 

The No. 2 soybean contracts, which are encouraged to be delivered with soybeans harvested from genetically modified crops, settled mostly higher.

 

The benchmark September contract rose RMB36 to settle at RMB2,630/tonne.

 

Corn futures settled higher on speculative long buying amid the spillover effect from other agricultural commodities, analysts said.

 

The benchmark September 2006 contract settled RMB17 higher at RMB1,474/tonne.

 

Open interest for all contracts rose by 33,174 lots to 851,584 lots.