By Dwayne Klassen, Commodity News Service Canada

Winnipeg – October 31/12 – Canola futures on the ICE Canada trading platform finished Wednesday’s session on a weaker note with late day liquidation, some of which was believed to be profit-taking, scaring buyers away and turning values down, market watchers said.

Some of the late selling interest was also linked to the inability of values to penetrate technical resistance levels, brokers said.

The move by CBOT soyoil off its highs near the close also encouraged some of the selling that surfaced in canola.

Support in canola for much of the day had stemmed from the advances in the CBOT soybean complex and steady demand.

Some of the commercial interest was said to be covering old export business to Japan. The reluctance of farmers in western Canada to deliver canola to the country elevator system helped to influence the upward price action, traders said.

Some early support in canola also came from the advances posted overnight by Malaysian palm oil and European rapeseed futures.

Weakness in the Canadian dollar and the generally tight canola supply situation in Canada had also helped to influence some of the early price gains, brokers said.

A drop off in domestic crusher demand, amid deteriorating crush margins, tempered some of the price strength.

There were an estimated 16,221 canola contracts traded Wednesday, up from the 7,869 contracts that changed hands during the previous session. Of the contracts that changed hands, 4.812 were spread related.

Milling wheat, barley and durum contracts were untraded and unchanged.

Prices are in Canadian dollars per metric ton.