March 6, 2006

 

Monday: China soybean futures settle down on after-hours CBOT trend

 

 

Soybean futures on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange settled lower Monday, as investors expect soybean futures on the Chicago Board of Trade to fall Monday, given the trend in after-hours trade on CBOT during Asian time, traders said.

 

The benchmark September 2006 soybean contract settled RMB22 lower at RMB2,724 a metric tonne after a range-bound trading session.

 

Total trading volume fell to 49,574 lots from 95,710 lots Friday. One lot equals 10 tonnes.

 

Some speculators built up short positions after seeing prices dropping in after-hours trade on CBOT, expecting CBOT soybeans to fall when the market opens Monday, said Xu Yulan, an analyst with Yong'an Futures Co.

 

"On the whole, it's a boring market, without any fresh market-moving news," Xu said.

 

Soymeal futures settled lower along with soybean futures. The benchmark September 2006 contract fell RMB27 to RMB2,339/tonne.

 

Open interest for all contracts rose 4,596 lots to 325,156 lots.

 

Soyoil futures settled lower on long liquidation. Analysts believe as physical prices failed to track the previous gains in the futures market, the overbought condition is likely to be corrected in the following days.

 

The benchmark September 2006 contract settled RMB48 lower at RMB5,259/tonne.

 

Trading volume for all soyoil contracts fell to 87,818 lots from 119,194 lots Friday.

 

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

 

The benchmark September contract settled RMB15 lower at RMB2,615/tonne.

 

Corn futures settled slightly lower on profit-taking from longs amid concerns due to the spread of a deadly strain of bird flu, analysts said.

 

The benchmark September 2006 contract settled RMB11 lower to RMB1,463/tonne.

 

Open interest for all contracts fell by 29,094 lots to 822,470 lots.

 

China confirmed a 32-year-old man in southern Guangdong province died of the H5N1 strain of bird flu Sunday, bringing the number of humans infected since October to 14, including eight deaths.