JAKARTA, Feb 24 – Malaysia’s palm oil futures edged down by Wednesday midday, easing further from a 6-½ week peak hit a day before as investors do not want to take positions ahead of Thursday’s release of Feb.1-25 palm oil exports, traders said.
A leak of the data normally occurs a day before Cargo surveyors Intertek Testing Services and Societe General de Surveillance unveil their estimates. Any improvement from a fall of nearly 9 per cent in the first 20 days could spur buying interest as early as in the afternoon session.
Traders said the market is still supported by sound fundamentals with the prospect of hotter-than-usual weather due to the return of El Nino weather pattern, but it is struggling to rally further as it is considered overbought.
“It is difficult to rise further after approaching the resistance level, so some people just decided to sell,” said a trader at a Kuala Lumpur-based brokerage.
He said overnight weakness in soybean prices also hurt sentiment.
The benchmark May crude palm oil futures on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange settled down 7 ringgit, or 0.3 per cent, at 2,628 ringgit ($777.29) per tonne.
Overall traded volume was at 3,357 lots of 25 tonnes each, far below the usual 5,000 lots.
Indonesian Trade Minister Mari Pangestu on Wednesday said that the CPO price may stabilise in a range of $700-$750 a tonne this year, with a good soy crop in southern America limiting the upside.
In the Malaysian palm oil physical market, bid/ask for February and March delivery was quoted at 2,625/2,635 ringgit per tonne in the southern and central regions. No trades were done. - REUTERS
No comments:
Post a Comment