• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Sell pressure expected to keep maize, rice, soybeans prices low till July

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Sell pressure on farmers who need cash to prepare for cultivation in the current wet farming season is expected to keep prices of maize, soybeans and paddy rice low until July.

AFEX Commodities Exchange Limited, a trading platform, said in its monthly market report for April that market activity was characterised by a marginal price decline for maize in the domestic markets and soybeans on the Exchange.

The maize sub-index opened at 174.1. It had a month average performance of 180.0, 2.3 percent higher than March, and closed at the value of 178.2. The sub-index recorded a positive season-to-date performance on the last trading day of the month closing 43.5 percentage point higher than December index opening, while the year-on-year performance experienced a 21.4 percent-point increase against April 2018.

Paddy rice opened at 133.0 and had a monthly average value of 130.6 which was a 0.7 point increase month-month from March to close at 134.0 at the end of the month.

The rice index also recorded a positive season-to-date performance on the last trading of the closing day of the month, closing 11.7 percent points above the sub-index opening at the start of the season while the year-on-year performance experienced an 11.1 percentage point increase against April.

For soybeans, the index opened at 206.4 and had a monthly average performance of 211.6, marking 1.1 percent below March. It closed with a value of 220.3 and closed 31.7 percentage points above the December opening of the index. Its year-on-year performance was at 49.2 percentage point increase.

The price increase for paddy rice and soybean from March was sustained in April while maize average price declined in the same period, the report said.

Market price volatility also sustained an upward trend for soybean and paddy rice to 20 percent while the maize volatility remained neutral at 9 percent month-on-month.

On the AFEX Exchange, the average prices were lower by 13 percent, 10 percent and 7 percent, respectively, for maize, soybean, and paddy rice.

The AFEX Commodities Index composite opened at a value of 170.0 points and had a monthly average value of 174.4 points above March to close at 177.5 at the end of the month.

The season-to-date performance of the ACI composite at the last trading day of the month was positive, closing 29.6 percent above the index opening at the beginning of the season. The year-on-year performance experienced 32.6 differences against 2018.

The AFEX Composite Index performance was primarily driven by the maize and paddy rice sub-indices which had a 4.0 and 1.0 points increase month-on-month, respectively.

Temitayo Ayetoto