December 1, 2008

 

Soy futures traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange settled lower Monday (Dec 1), in line with mild losses on the Chicago Board of Trade.

 

However, analysts said the CBOT was not providing clear direction, so the downside for local soy should be limited by year-end holiday consumption.

 

China's benchmark May 2009 soy contract settled RMB31 lower at RMB3,195/tonne, after trading in a narrow range of RMB37/tonne.

 

Cash soy prices were stable as soy processing plants have to buy cash soy to refill stocks, but they were not buying actively given the lack of direction from the CBOT, said the China Soy Network.

 

Supportive government policies and the depreciation of yuan, which raises the prices of imported soy, will also help to prevent further declines in domestic soy prices, said Xu Wenjie, an analyst at Tianma Futures.

 

The dollar hit RMB6.8830 in the over-the-counter market Monday, up from RMB6.8349 at Friday's close.

 

Open interest in all soy contracts fell 3,122 lots to 603,388 lots Monday.

 

Trading volume declined to 428,546 lots from 544,502 lots Friday.

 

Corn futures and soymeal futures settled lower, but palm oil futures and soyoil futures settled mostly higher.

 

Expectations of higher edible oil demand ahead of the year-end holidays helped palm oil and soyoil futures to rebound, said Gao Yanrong, an analyst at Dalu Futures.

 

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

                                

Contract       Settlement       Price      Change      Volume

Soy              May 2009        3,195      Dn   31      428,546

Corn            May 2009        1,539       Dn   23      271,084

Soymeal       May 2009        2,315       Dn   41     448,958

Palm Oil        May 2009        4,808       Up   32     117,010