Wednesday: China soy futures little changed; market digests USDA report
Soy futures traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled little changed Wednesday, ending a rather choppy day as the U.S. Department of Agriculture's bearish report was digested.
The benchmark September 2010 soy contract settled RMB1 a metric tonne higher at RMB3,717/tonne.
The contract opened lower as the USDA's overnight report, which showed higher soy output and yield estimates than market expectations, proved to be negative to prices.
But as traders had factored in such an outcome in previous sessions, the fall was limited and the contract was trading in a very tight range of RMB17/tonne.
While industry participants are waiting for fresh favorable news from the local market, it's still worth buying if the price falls below RMB3,700/tonne, said Galaxy Futures in a research note.
China's soy imports in October totaled 2.52 million tonnes, up 18% on year, higher than market expectations of 2 million tonnes, customs data showed Wednesday.
Soy imports are expected to rise month-on-month in the coming months as stocks have been falling after comparatively lower imports in the past several months, analysts said.
The Ministry of Commerce expects November soy imports to recover on month to 2.81 million tonnes.
Trading volume for all soy contracts declined to 94,602 lots from 123,140 lots Tuesday.
Open interest fell 8,120 lots to 256,732 lots.
Corn futures, soymeal futures, soyoil futures and palm oil futures all settled higher.
Wednesday's settlement prices in yuan a metric tonne for benchmark contracts and the volume for all contracts in lots (One lot is equivalent to 10 tonnes):
Contract Settlement Price Change Volume
Soy Sep 2010 3,717 Up 1 94,602
Corn May 2010 1,754 Up 14 241,910
Soymeal May 2010 2,880 Up 22 1,300,752
Palm Oil May 2010 6,216 Up 8 218,558
Soyoil May 2010 7,342 Up 24 982,038
