Palm futures down as dealers take profits - Business Times

CPO FUTURES

CRUDE palm oil (CPO) futures on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives closed lower yesterday on profit-taking, dealers said.

A Reuters technical analysis showed Malaysian palm oil price will decline further to RM3,570 tonne, based on its wave pattern and a triangle pattern.

Although cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said exports of Malaysian palm oil products for Feb. 1 to Feb. 20 fell 3.2 per cent to 825,180 tonnes from the same period a month ago, demand from China limited the declines.

March 2011 declined RM29 to RM3,726 a tonne, April 2011 fell RM27 to RM3,707, May 2011 erased RM27 to RM3,656 and June 2011 fell RM28 to RM3,602.

Turnover decreased to 25,633 lots from 30,420 lots last Friday while open interest rose to 111,250 contracts from 108,046 contracts previously.

On the physical market, March South stood at RM3,740 a tonne.

RUBBER

THE Malaysian rubber market closed mixed yesterday on steady demand for the commodity, dealers said.

However, some market players stayed on the sidelines waiting for the prices to go down, they said.

“Players also reacted to the downtrend of regional markets like Singapore, Shanghai and Japan,” they said.

At noon, the Malaysian Rubber Board’ s physical price for tyre-grade SMR 20 dwindled 14 sen to 1,720.0 sen a kg from 1,734.0 sen on Friday while latex-in-bulk rose 11 sen to 1,090.5 sen from 1,079.5 sen last week.

The unofficial sellers’ price for SMR 20 fell 16.5 to 1,711.0 sen from 1,727.5 sen on Friday but latex-in-bulk gained 7.5 sen to 1,093.5 sen from 1,086.0 sen on Friday.

TIN

THE Kuala Lumpur Tin Market (KLTM) rose by US$500 (US$1.00 = RM3.04) to close at US$32,400 per tonne yesterday due to high interest among buyers, a dealer said.

He also said the higher price was also in line with that of the London Metal Exchange (LME). On the LME, which usually influences global prices, the tin price ended US$700 higher at US$32,350 per tonne.

At the opening bell on the KLTM, buyers bid for 80 tonnes while sellers offered 40 tonnes with strong interest from European, Japanese and local traders.

Turnover rose to 55 tonnes from the 40 tonnes recorded last Friday. The price differential between the KLTM and the LME narrowed to US$515 per tonne from US$715 previously. - Agencies