Canola futures rose Friday, lifted by the weaker loonie and concerns about dry soil in western areas of the Prairies.
On the week, the May contract rose 1.2 percent.
Exporters covered shorts as the loonie weakened. Crushers were active buyers.
Soybeans and soy oil futures partially bounced back from Thursday’s losses. Support came from word that Argentine police had closed the road to one of the country’s key grain ports following days of protests by striking port workers.
The May canola contract rose $2.60 to $382.30 per tonne on 6,827 trades. The previous day’s best basis narrowed to -$7.75 per tonne off the May contract in the par region, according to the Winnipeg ICE Futures daily report.
The 14-day Relative Strength Index for May canola rose to 47, according to BarChart.com. The rule of thumb is an RSI of 30 indicates an oversold market and 70 indicates overbought.
July rose $2.60 to $388.30 on 5,489 trades.
New crop November rose $2.20 to $388.60 per tonne on 2,030 trades.
The Canadian dollar at noon was 97.23 cents US, down from 98.15 cents at noon the previous trading day. The U.S. dollar at noon was $1.0285 Cdn. Euro zone leaders finally agreed on a support plan for debt-laden Greece.
Again there was no trade in Winnipeg barley and there are only 26 open interest contracts: 11 in May, five in July and 10 in December.
The May barley contract was steady at $154. July was steady at $145. December was steady at $150.
May soybeans rose 9.5 cents US to $9.52 per bushel. November soybeans rose five cents to $9.18 per bu.
May oats rose 5.25 cents to $2.12 per bu.
Light crude oil for May delivery fell 53 cents to $80 per barrel.
Canadian Oilseed Processors Association members crushed 106,791 tonnes of canola in the week ending March 24.
That was down about three percent from the week before and represented a capacity utilization rate of 83.1 percent.
To date in the crop year, members have crushed 2.71 million tonnes.
