March 22, 2010
Monday: China soy futures settle up; soy product prices at low levels
Soy futures on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled slightly higher Monday, with prices consolidating in a tight range as traders stayed cautiously on the sidelines.
The benchmark September 2010 soy contract settled up RMB5 or 0.1% at RMB3,867 a tonne.
The contract opened lower and consolidated around Friday's settlement price.
The market's focus is on a planting report to be issued at the end of this month by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and trading is likely to be cautious ahead of that, said analysts.
There has been wide divergence on the amount of soy area to be planted by U.S. farmers based on institutions' data.
There is little guidance from local cash trading as most soy crushers in the northeast major producing areas have stopped making cash crop purchases due to competition from lower-priced imported soys.
But prices of commodities--especially of soy and soy products, which are low--are likely to rise further as a result of possible continued easy monetary policies, said Jiusan Oil and Fat Co. in a note.
A withdrawal of stimulus policies in China would be gradual and moderate, based on changes in the domestic and international economy, Vice Minister of Finance Wang Jun said Sunday.
Trading volume for all soy contracts declined to 222,592 lots from 276,110 lots Friday.
Open interest fell 4,324 lots to 346,380 lots.
Corn futures, soyoil futures, soymeal futures and palm oil futures all settled higher.
Following are Monday's settlement prices in yuan a 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 3,867 Up 5 222,592
Corn Sep 2010 1,911 Up 8 53,350
Soymeal Sep 2010 2,829 Up 3 690,322
Palm Oil Sep 2010 6,910 Up 38 332,338
Soyoil Sep 2010 7,498 Up 32 381,148
