By Wang Lan (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-10-30 17:46

Corn futures contracts on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, SHFE, today surged for the third trading day with the most actively traded contracts jumping an aggregate 3.5 percent, reflecting rising expectations amongst traders.

The most actively traded corn futures contracts for delivery in May 2008 rose 0.95 percent yesterday to close at 1,707 yuan per ton. Since last Friday, the contract price has soared 58 yuan per ton, or 3.5 percent. The trading volume of contracts for delivery in May reached 1.29 million hands, a 300 percent increase from last Friday.

The contract price had reached the historic high of 1,774 yuan per ton on May 24.

Analysts said that the overall bullish performance in the agricultural produce futures over the past few months helped push up corn futures prices. What's more, the continuous weakening of the US dollar and surging crude oil prices have heightened interest in agricultural produce. Industrial experts said vigorous economic growth in China has contributed to escalating prices of a wide range of agricultural produce domestically.

Other major futures contracts on agricultural produce including soybean, soybean oil and soybean meal yesterday showed a slight price decline after rising continuously over the past several weeks. Analysts said it was nothing but a necessary correction and yesterday's price drop would not change the long term upward climb.

The most actively traded soybean meal futures contracts for delivery in May 2008 on Dalian Commodity Excahnge fell 0.21 percent to close at 3,337 yuan per ton. Meanwhile yesterday, soybean futures contracts for delivery in January 2009 shed 1.35 percent to close at 4,078 yuan per ton.