Business Times

Thursday – January 31, 2008

CPO FUTURES

Crude palm oil (CPO) futures prices on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Bhd closed higher yesterday, tracking the uptrend movement of crude oil prices, a dealer said.

Crude oil prices moved upward to a two-week high of US$92.19 (US$1 = RM3.26) per barrel, gripped by the growing speculation that the US Federal Reserve will further cut its interest rate later yesterday.

The interest rate cut could help the US economy avert a recession and thereby increase demand for oil, he added, but noted that the local factors are not that bullish.

The January whole-month export data is expected to show a weakening of exports of palm oil products and that could put pressures on the CPO prices, he felt, anticipating a fall by as much as 30 per cent.

At close yesterday, spot month Feb 2008 rose RM10 to RM3,211 and March 2008 was up RM24 to RM3,221.

April 2008 jumped RM24 to RM3,224 and May 2008 increased RM20 to RM3,220 per tonne.

Volume rose to 8,957 lots from 8,107 lots on Tuesday while open interest declined to 43,957 contracts compared to 44,437 contracts previously.

On the physical market, Feb South edged up to RM3,260 per tonne from RM3,230 per tonne on Tuesday.

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