At midday close, China’s main futures contracts were mostly higher. Apples, lithium carbonate and palladium rose more than 4%; SC crude (Shanghai crude futures) gained nearly 4%; Shanghai silver and soda ash advanced over 3%. PVC, coking coal, glass, platinum, p‑xylene and bitumen climbed over 2%. On the downside, rapeseed fell more than 4%; container shipping rates on the Europe route dropped about 2%; fuel oil fell just over 1% and soybean No.1 slipped nearly 1%.