CPO Futures Rebound After Two Days Loss

Published: 2009/04/18

CPO FUTURESCrude palm oil (CPO) futures prices on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives ended the trading week higher yesterday, after a two-day loss.A dealer said the market sentiment improved with buyers chasing for stock as concerns grew over supplies on expectations of a further drop in inventory.

A recent report said that the April stockpile is expected to be below 1.2 million tonnes against the 1.36 million tonnes recorded last month.

"Sentiment is positive and thus likely to sustain prices above the RM2,350-RM2,500 level in the near future," he said.The CPO futures contracts for May 2009 rose RM70 to close at RM2,570 a tonne, while June 2009 and July 2009 increased RM77 each to RM2,487 and RM2,435 a tonne respectively.

August 2009 went up by RM68 to RM2,384 a tonne.Yesterday's volume amounted to 17,340 lots, higher from Thursday's 16,116 lots while open interests also rose to 87,313 contracts from 85,448 contracts previously. As for the physical market, the April shipment in the southern region was slightly higher at RM2,610 per tonne compared with the RM2,620 per tonne on Thursday.

RUBBER Rubber prices ended mixed for the fourth consecutive day yesterday as the market saw some price adjustments, a dealer said.He said the local latex prices were adjusting itself to be in line with Thailand's rubber prices."The local rubber price is being pressured as buyers are looking to Thailand for latex as it is priced much lower compared with us," the dealer said.

However, he said, the losses were limited as tight supply in major producer countries continued to keep the SMR 20 prices high.At noon yesterday, the Malaysian Rubber Board's official physical price for tyre-grade SMR 20 rose 2.5 sen to 574.5 sen a kilo, but latex in bulk lost one sen to 435 sen a kilo.

The unofficial sellers' closing price for tyre-grade SMR 20 gained one sen to 574.5 sen a kilo while latex in bulk was down by 1.5 sen to 434 sen a kilo.TIN The Kuala Lumpur Tin Market (KLTM) surged to two-and-a-half-month high yesterday on heavy buying, especially from foreign buyers, a dealer said.

The commodity's price went up by US$140 to close the week higher at US$11,240 a tonne yesterday.He said the uptrend was also in line with firmer tin price on the London Metal Exchange (LME) which increased by US$250 to settle at US$11,600 per tonne.

At the opening level on the KLTM yesterday, buyers made bids for 160 tonnes while offers were only at 50 tonnes with the participation of Japanese, European and local traders.Turnover of the day, however, slid to 65 tonnes from 98 tonnes on Thursday. The price difference between the KLTM and the LME widened to a discount of US$145 per tonne from a discount of US$35 per tonne previously. - Bernama