Soybeans extended their biggest gain in more than six weeks as China, the world’s largest buyer, boosted imports and on speculation record demand for cooking oil and livestock feed will outpace harvests. Wheat and corn rose. Soybeans for delivery in November gained as much as 1.3 percent to $11.925 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade and were at $11.88 a bushel at 10:58 a.m. Singapore time. Futures jumped 1.7 percent yesterday, the most since Aug. 26. Chinese companies purchased 22 cargoes of soybeans and 80,000 metric tons of soybean oil from the end of September to the first week of October, state-owned researcher Grain.gov.cn said yesterday. Global soybean use will increase 3.8 percent to a record 262.24 million tons in the year ending Sept. 30, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “Recent strong demand for U.S. soybeans by the Chinese combined with the improving mood in global financial markets supported” prices, Luke Mathews, a commodity strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, wrote in a report e-mailed today. Global equities advanced, along with gold and grains, after German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy pledged at the weekend to stem Europe’s debt crisis, enhancing the prospects of a global economic rebound. Outstanding sales of U.S. soybeans to China stood at 11.1 million tons as of Sept. 29, up from 10.87 million tons a week earlier, the USDA said Oct. 6, a day before it said a further 106,000 tons were sold to the Asian nation by U.S. exporters. Wheat for delivery in December gained as much as 1.2 percent to $6.1875 a bushel before trading at $6.1575. Corn for December gained as much as 0.7 percent to $6.095 a bushel before trading at $6.075. To contact the reporter on this story: Luzi Ann Javier in Singapore at ljavier@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Poole at jpoole4@bloomberg.net

Source