By Dwayne Klassen, Commodity News Service Canada
March 4, 2013
WINNIPEG – Canola futures on the ICE Canada trading platform finished Monday’s session on a firmer footing with much of the upward price action encouraged by the strength in the outside oilseed sector, market watchers said.
Gains overnight in Malaysian palm oil and European rapeseed futures stimulated some of the early advances in canola with additional buying tied to the upward price movement seen in both CBOT soybean and soyoil futures, traders said.
Concerns about tight old crop canola supplies aided the price gains in the nearby months. Some of the price advances were also spurred on by the weak Canadian dollar and steady demand from the domestic and export outlets, brokers said.
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Chart-based speculative and commodity fund buying also lifted canola futures during the session.
Buy-stops were triggered on the way up helping to amplify the price gains in a couple of months.
The upside in canola was tempered by the taking of profits at the highs of the day. Steady elevator company hedge selling, associated with farmer deliveries of canola into the cash pipeline in western Canada, further limited the upward price action.
Favourable weather for the development of the soybean crops in South America also restricted some of the price strength.
Spreading was a feature of the activity in canola and helped to bolster the volume total.
There were an estimated 11,899 canola contracts traded Monday, up slightly from the 11,403 contracts that changed hands during the previous session. Of the contracts that were traded, 5,632 consisted of spreads.
No milling wheat, durum or barley contracts were traded.
Prices are in Canadian dollars per metric ton.
