ICE Canada Review: Short-Covering Lifts Canola
| 1 min read
| By Dwayne Klassen, Resource News International |
| February 18, 2010 |
| Winnipeg – Canola contracts on the ICE Futures Canada platform finished Thursday’s session with small advances in spread dominated activity. The small price gains reflected the buying back of previously sold positions by a variety of participants, market watchers said.
Good volume totals were once again seen in canola with much of that activity consisting of spreading as commodity funds rolled out of the nearby March future and into the May contract, brokers said. Canola values had moved to both sides of the plus/minus line before finishing mainly higher. Weakness early in the day came from the losses seen overnight in Malaysian palm oil and from carryover selling from Wednesday’s weaker close, traders said. Some hedge offers from elevator companies also hit the market early in the session adding to the bearish price sentiment at that time. Weakness in CBOT soybean and soyoil values also initiated some of the downward price action seen during the session. Light domestic crusher demand and routine pricing of old business helped to generate some of the firmness in the market, brokers said. The lack of follow-through selling that surfaced early in the day also dried up and allowed canola values to push fractionally higher, traders said. There were an estimated 18,959 canola contracts traded Thursday, down from 32,686 during the previous session. Of the contracts traded, most of the volume was said to have represented spreads. Western barley futures were steady to lower with light commercial offerings in the absence of willing buyers generating much of the downward price action, traders said. Losses in CBOT corn were also an undermining price influence. There were 13 barley contracts that changed hands during the session. On Wednesday, 45 barley contracts were traded. |
