Indian soya futures down on monsoon prospects

Indian soyabean futures fell on Friday as prospects of a timely arrival of the monsoon brightened in the absence of any abnormalities in the weather system, while soyaoil rose on weak rupee. "Timely monsoon onset will improve output prospects for summer-planted crops including soyabean," said Badruddin Khan, associate vice-president of research at Indiabulls Commodities.
India's south-west monsoon rains, vital for the farm-dependent economy, are forecast to arrive on the Kerala coast around June 3, give or take four days, a time-frame treated as normal. Timely progress of the monsoon over the soyabean growing areas of central India will boost production prospects for the oilseed crop by giving sufficient time to mature.
India grows soyabean in summer and harvests the oilseed crop after the monsoon season ends in September. Until then, the country has to rely on soyaoil imports from Latin America to meet domestic demand. India is the world's biggest importer of cooking oils and meets over half its demand of 17 million tonnes via imports. It mainly imports palm oils and a small quantity of soyaoil, which is preferred in the making of fried food served during marriages and festivals.
A weak Indian currency will make soyaoil imports from Brazil and Argentina costlier in coming months. Traders said rapeseed reflected the sentiment in soyaoil as it is the highest oil yielding crop, while global sentiment in rival palm oil supported the higher trade in soyaoil.
On Thursday, the benchmark palm oil contract on the Bursa Malaysia gained 0.5 percent to close at 2,370 ($782) ringgit a tonne, slightly off its high at 2,375 ringgit, a level last seen on April 11. On Friday, the exchange was closed due to a public holiday. At 0900 GMT, the key June soyabean contract on the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange was down 0.7 percent at 3,850 rupees per 100 kg. The rapeseed June contract inched up 0.1 percent to 3,518 rupees per 100 kg.
The key June soyaoil contract was up 0.4 percent to 707 rupees per 10 kg. At the Indore spot market in Madhya Pradesh, soyabean was flat at 3,983 rupees per 100 kg, while soyaoil was up about 2 rupees at 728.5 rupees per 10 kg. At Jaipur in Rajasthan, rapeseed was up around 3 rupees at 3,528 rupees.