By Dwayne Klassen, Commodity News Service Canada
March 27, 2013
WINNIPEG – Canola futures on the ICE Canada trading platform finished Wednesday’s session on a mainly firmer footing with steady commercial demand and concerns about tight old crop supplies providing the upward momentum, market watchers said.
The commercial buying interest was said to be covering minor domestic processor needs as well as covering old export business, traders said.
Chart-motivated commodity fund buying also influenced some of the price advances seen in canola. The absence of significant farmer deliveries of canola into the cash pipeline further lifted canola futures.
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Strength in canola was also drawn from the upturn experienced in CBOT soybean futures, brokers said. Some short-covering ahead of the USDA reports that will be released on Thursday also provided canola with some small support.
The upside in canola was restricted by the taking of profits at the highs of the day. The large Australian canola harvest and the potential to reduce China’s purchases of Canadian canola, also limited the upside in values, brokers said.
The fractional upswing in the value of the Canadian dollar Wednesday also tempered the upside in canola, traders said.
Activity in canola consisted of position squaring, especially ahead of the USDA reports and ahead of the three-day Easter holiday weekend. The ICE Canada platform will be closed on March 29 for Good Friday.
There were an estimated 17,215 canola contracts traded Wednesday, up from the 11,560 contracts that changed hands during the previous session. Of the contracts traded, 14,632 were spread related.
No milling wheat, durum or barley contracts were traded during the session. Barley values, however, were raised by ICE Canada at the close.
Prices are in Canadian dollars per metric ton.
