Refined soya oil prices on Wednesday rose 0.90 per cent to Rs 856.6 per 10 kg in futures trade as speculators raised their bets.

On the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange, refined soya oil for February delivery moved up by Rs 7.6, or 0.90 per cent, to Rs 856.6 per 10 kg in 34,180 lots.

Similarly, refined soya oil contracts for March delivery edged up by Rs 11.8, or 1.41 per cent, to Rs 848 per 10 kg in 49,655 lots Analysts said widening of positions by traders mainly helped refined soya oil prices to trade higher in futures market.

Front month soy futures were fractionally to a penny higher at the closing bell. Soy meal contracts ended $1.10/ton lower, with soy oil having gained 59 cents on the day.

December US soybean exports were 204.67 mbu. That was 20.48% lower than the Nov shipments, but 38.75% higher yr/yr. Shipments to China were 2.626 MMT, which was 38.06% lower than Nov shipments.

The Dec soy meal exports were 1.017 MMT, which was 2.4% lower yr/yr. Soybean oil exports totaled 83,579 MT through the same month, which was a 16.8% increase over Dec ’18. Estimates ahead of USDA’s weekly Export Sales report have soybean bookings ranging from 400k to 800k MT, and 0-100k MT of new crop bookings.

Soybean meal expectations are 200k-500k MT of sales for the week ending 01/30. Traders are anticipating soybean oil sales to run 12k to 60k MT for the same week.

The Stats Canada grains and oilseeds stocks report listed canola stocks at Dec 31 at 14.271 MMT, which was a bigger than anticipated reduction (of 0.347 MMT). Canadian soybean stocks were 3.874 MMT on Dec 31, which was a yearly reduction of 9.42%.