BEIJING, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- China's futures market witnessed a rapid growth in trade volume in July, led by an active trade in farm products such as sugar, soybeans, and aluminum.

    Trade volume hit 6.45 trillion yuan (948 billion U.S. dollars), representing an increase of 76 percent over the same period last year, according to figures released Sunday by the China Futures Association.

    Futures markets nationwide realized 112 million contracts in July, up 98 percent.

    In the January-July period, the trade volume of China's futures markets grew 128 percent year on year to 41.5 trillion yuan, involving 690 million contracts.

    Market analysts attributed the increase mainly to the sharply fluctuating farm product prices across the global since late 2007,as well as to an improving domestic market environment.

    The introduction of zinc and palm oil futures last year and the long awaited gold futures early this year had enriched the market, although trade volume stimulated by the new products are yet to be expanded, traders say.

    At the Shanghai Futures Exchange, where metals such as gold, copper and zinc are mainly traded, the trade volume in July totaled 2.7 trillion yuan, up 9.7 percent.

    Zhengzhou Commodity Exchanges (ZCE), where farm produce such as wheat, cotton and sugar are mainly traded, saw a trade volume of 1.3 trillion yuan in July, representing an increase of 253 percent over the same month last year.

    Dalian Commodity Exchange's trade volume totaled 2.5 trillion yuan this month, up 192 percent over last July.

    Compared with the well-developed commodity market, the Chinese futures market is much weaker, with few types of contracts available. Futures trading of pork, steel, crude, and stock index futures in particular, are expected to be introduced to the market, said market analysts.