Commodity Roundup: CPO futures rebound
Business Times
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
CPO FUTURES
CRUDE palm oil (CPO) futures on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives ended mostly higher yesterday on short covering after having been in an oversold market recently, dealers said.
“The market closed slightly higher today. There were not much activities in the market,” one of the dealers said, adding that the rally in the soyoil futures and crude oil markets also provided support to the CPO market.
Another dealer said that overall sentiment remained weak as buyers were seeking to renegotiate prices to a lower level.
He said prices dropped in recent weeks as buyers defaulted by as much as 300,000 tonnes during the period according some reports.
More defaults may occur if prices continued to slide, the dealer said, adding that external factors such as soyoil and crude oil prices will have some influence on the CPO direction.
At the close yesterday, the benchmark third-month October contract ended RM32 higher at RM2,485 per tonne.
Of other contracts, August 2008 fell RM66 to close at RM2,484 per tonne, September 2008 climbed RM31 to RM2,485 per tonne, November 2008 gained RM33 to RM2,485 per tonne and December 2008 advanced RM38 to RM2,490 per tonne.
Total volume dropped to 10,089 lots compared with 18,015 lots last Friday while open interest went up slightly to 53,899 contracts from 53,273 contracts previously.
On the physical market, CPO for August shipments in the southern region was higher at RM2,510 per tonne compared to RM2,500 per tonne previously.
