March 22, 2006

 

Wednesday: China soybean futures up as bird flu fears ease; corn up

 

 

Soybean futures on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange settled higher Wednesday on light speculative buying as bird flu concerns eased, analysts said.

 

China hasn't reported a new case of bird flu among poultry for almost a month.

 

The government's chief veterinarian said recently that a large-scale outbreak in spring isn't very likely as farms would have finished vaccinating all their fowl by mid-April.

 

The benchmark September 2006 soybean contract rose RMB14 to settle at RMB2,682 a metric tonne, after trading between RMB2,671/tonne and RMB2,689/tonne.

 

Trading volume for all soybean contracts rose to 57,220 lots from 49,608 lots Tuesday.

 

Total open interest rose by 1,884 lots to 269,662 lots.

 

One lot equals to 10 tonnes.

 

"Though the market sentiment has been improving these days, an uptrend still needs confirmation by CBOT," said Xu Yulan, an analyst with Yongan Futures Co.

 

"That's why many investors still chose to wait on the sidelines, as technically, Dalian's soybeans are already stronger than CBOT soybeans," he added.

 

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 RMB19 to settle at RMB2,587/tonne.

 

Soymeal futures settled mostly higher on bargain hunting, along with soybeans, analysts said.

 

The benchmark September 2006 soymeal settled RMB21 higher at RMB2,287/tonne.

 

Trading volume for all soymeal contracts rose slightly to 297,452 lots from 238,782 lots Tuesday.

 

Xu said most crushers aren't producing much soymeal due to slim profit margins, in turn supporting futures prices.

 

Soyoil futures settled mixed. The benchmark September 2006 contract rose RMB5 to settle at RMB5,162/tonne.

 

Corn futures settled higher, as short-covering drove up nearby contracts while long position holders began to roll their positions into forward months.

 

The most widely held September 2006 contract settled RMB15 higher at RMB1,405/tonne.

 

Trading volume for all contracts rose to 440,828 lots from 378,718 lots Tuesday.

 

Total open interest rose 23,638 lots to 568,832 lots.