Thursday: China soy futures up on CBOT rise, but restrained by CPI data

 

 

Soy futures traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled higher Thursday, following gains on the Chicago Board of Trade overnight, but prices were restrained by local economic data.

 

The benchmark September 2010 soy contract settled up RMB14, or 0.4%, at RMB3,856 a metric tonne.

 

The contract came off highs after government data Thursday showed the consumer price index in February was up 2.7% from a year earlier, accelerating from 1.5% in January and above a median forecast of 2.4% in a Dow Jones Newswires poll of 11 economists.

 

China is likely to have to raise interest rates, strengthen the currency and use other monetary tightening tools to keep inflation under the 3% target for 2010, RBC Capital Markets said after the stronger-than-expected CPI data.

 

"With the increasing rate hike concerns in China, funds' risk-avoidance operations will limit any rise (in soy prices)," Galaxy Futures said in a note.

 

Trading volume of all soy contracts rose to 498,142 lots from 134,932 lots Wednesday.

 

Open interest rose 6,094 lots to 371,348 lots Thursday.

 

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

 

Following are 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      3,856        Up   14    498,142

Corn       Sep 2010      1,872        Up    1     39,352

Soymeal  Sep 2010      2,788        Dn    1    939,160

Palm Oil  Sep 2010      6,976        Dn   82    672,382

Soyoil     Sep 2010      7,564        Dn   24    730,916