Canadian canola futures were higher Thursday afternoon, benefiting from higher US soyabean markets and a slowdown in hedge selling by farmers harvesting canola. Canola harvest in the Prairie Provinces advanced this week, nearing 84 percent finished in Saskatchewan, but the active hedge selling of previous sessions had slowed on Thursday, traders said.
Late on Thursday, November canola was up $5.80 at $498.60 per tonne on a volume of 8,551 contracts. January was up $5.40 at $507.00 on a volume of 10,640. Canola drew support from higher CBOT soya futures, with December soyabean oil up 0.40 cent at 47.98 cents per lb. The Canadian dollar was at $1.0071 to the US dollar, 99.78 US cents, on Thursday compared with the previous $1.0034. NYMEX crude oil futures, linked to canola through use in biofuels, were down 32 cents at US $82.69 per barrel on Thursday.