Commodities Roundup: CPO futures down 4.2pc
Business Times
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
CPO FUTURES
The benchmark November crude palm oil contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange fell RM115, or 4.2 per cent to finish at RM2,600 (US$770) per tonne. Other traded contract fell between RM42 and RM136 ringgit per tonne. Overall volume stood at 9,733 lots of 25 tonnes each.
“The market is going down on the back of Mistry’s comments which are looking at higher production,” a trader said.
Mistry, a director with Indian firm Godrej International, said Malaysian crude palm oil output forecasts of 17.4 million tonnes could be comfortably exceeded while
Oil has fallen about 22 per cent since its peak of above US$147 in mid-July on concerns that high energy costs are depressing global fuel demand. US crude futures were at US$115.13 per barrel at 1027 GMT.
But the benchmark crude palm oil future was not expected to fall below RM2,200 per tonne in the next few weeks, Mistry said, because easing prices would attract demand and oil prices stabilising around US$$100 a barrel would provide support.
“At the (RM2,200) level, we should see strong demand growth,” Mistry said.
Mistry’s comment was in line with traders’s expectations that the benchmark would find the strong support at 2,550 per tonne as rising palm oil exports offer support.
Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for August 1-25 rose 0.77 per cent to 1,141,494 tonnes from 1,132,797 tonnes shipped between July 1 and 25, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said yesterday.
