By Dwayne Klassen, Commodity News Service Canada

Winnipeg – October 12/12 – Canola futures on the ICE Canada trading platform ended Friday’s session on the defensive with the taking of profits by a variety of participants ahead of the weekend behind the downward price slide, market watchers said.

The unloading of risk was also a feature and contributed to the price declines.

The losses experienced by CBOT soybean and soyoil futures Friday further augmented the price drop seen in canola, traders said.

Pre-weekend hedging by elevator companies, in anticipation of a pick up in farmer deliveries into the cash pipeline also contributed to some of the price weakness. Commodity fund selling was also evident and added to the bearish price sentiment.

The losses in canola, however, were tempered by late day short-covering. Scale down pricing of old export business also helped to slow the price declines seen in canola, brokers said.

Continued concerns about the smaller canola harvest in western Canada this fall also provided some minor support,.

The rolling of positions from the November future to the January contract continued to be a feature of the activity in canola and helped to augment the volume total.

There were an estimated 21,242 canola contracts traded Friday, down from the 23,722 contracts that changed hands during the previous session. Of the contracts traded, 12,854 were spread related.

There were no milling wheat or durum contracts traded although values were decreased by ICE Canada at the close.

Barley contracts were untraded and unchanged.

Prices are in Canadian dollars per metric ton.