Shanghai

THE fever that's gripped Chinese commodity markets is easing.

Speculators who traded 1.7 trillion yuan (US$261 billion or S$355 billion) futures in a single day last month have retreated as fast as they advanced. Trading volumes across the nation's three biggest exchanges are more than half of what they were at their peak on April 22 and back to levels similar to a year ago, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The amount of money changing hands on a daily basis has shrunk to US$114 billion.