|
Palm oil prices higher
KUALA
LUMPUR, Sept 27: Malaysian crude palm oil futures closed up marginally on
Tuesday, reversing early losses as players bet on better exports for September
in a market struggling to stay above 1,450 ringgit a ton.
The benchmark third-month December
contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives closed up at 1,458 ringgit ($386.84) a
ton. It had risen as much as 16 ringgit in the afternoon to a high of 1,471.
The low for the day was 1,446
ringgit, indicating that some players were still not comfortable with the market
having broken the 1,450 resistance on Monday.
Speculators are trying to hit the
next resistance of 1,480 but I don’t think we can sustain that yet, said a
dealer.
Other traded contracts closed up 2
to 9 ringgit.
Volume
totaled 6,735 lots of 25 tons each, more than 5 times the level seen in the
morning.
I think we’ll see this pattern of
phenomenal afternoon volumes in the next few days until Friday’s export numbers,
said another dealer.
Market bulls are betting on strong
exports of palm oil beginning this month as Pakistan, the Middle East and India
import more products to prepare for the Ramadan and Diwali festivals in
October/November.
The December futures contract rose
27 ringgit on Monday, helped by stronger export estimates for the first 25 days
of September.
Societe Generale de Surveillance
(SGS), the main tracker of palm oil shipments watched by the market, on Monday
estimated exports for Sept. 1 to 25 at 1,021,894 tons, up 12.4 per cent from
what it tracked for Aug. 1 to 25.
SGS is due to estimate on Friday
shipments for the whole of September.
In physical business of crude palm
oil, September/October saw offers at 1,460 ringgit a ton and bids at 1,455 in
the southern and central regions of Malaysia. Trades were reported at
1,450-1,455 ringgit in both regions. |