Thursday: China soy futures settle up; government sales support prices

 

 

Chin's soy futures traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled higher Thursday, with government sales limiting the downside potential in contracts.

 

The benchmark May 2010 soy contract settled RMB26 higher at RMB3,620 a tonne, or up 0.7%.

 

The high soy auction base price of RMB3,750/tonne limited the fall in soy prices, "and there isn't much room for soy contracts to fall below RMB3,600/tonne," said Li Dongji, an analyst with Guotai Jun'an Futures Brokerage Co.

 

When prices go below RMB3,600/tonne, traders may be willing to set up long positions as they expect prices to be supported at that level, he added.

 

The trading volume of all soy contracts rose to 302,300 lots from 116,536 lots Wednesday.

 

The open interest rose 13,592 lots to 300,308 lots Thursday.

 

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

 

Vegetable oil cash prices face downward pressure in the near term from ample stocks and sluggish demand, according to China National Grain and Oils Information Center's latest report.

 

Thursday's settlement prices in yuan a tonne for benchmark contracts and volume for all contracts in lots (one lot is equivalent to 10 tonnes):  

 

Product   Contract     Settlement Price     Change       Volume  

soy         May 2010      3,620                  Up   26      302,300

Corn       May 2010      1,743                  Dn    1       117,218

Soymeal  May 2010      2,780                  Dn    1      1,117,226

Palm Oil   May 2010      6,062                  Up    6       529,168

Soyoil    May 2010       7,072                   Dn   24      620,980