MALAYSIAN crude palm oil futures rose as much as 1.7 per cent
yesterday to one-week highs, echoing a rise in crude oil and soy prices after a long weekend.
Traders said palm oil markets had last week priced in weak February export data released by cargo surveyors yesterday.
Expectations of weak production for last month are also supporting the market.
“The market is up, mostly on the back of the overseas general commodities markets and in electronic trading,” said one trader with foreign brokerage based in Kuala Lumpur.
Benchmark May crude palm oil futures on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange went as high as RM43 to RM2,638
(US$779.5) per tonne, its highest since February 22, before settling at RM2,630, up 1.35 per cent on the day.
Overall traded volume shot up to 15,974 lots of 25 tonnes each.
Financial markets in Malaysia were closed on February 26 for a public holiday.
ITS reported a decline of 19.4 per cent to 1,206,859 tonnes in February palm oil exports from Malaysia compared to a month earlier due to weaker demand from China after the Lunar New Year holidays.
Another cargo surveyor, Societe General de Surveillance, said exports last month tumbled 15.5 per cent o 1,249,390 tonnes from
January.
Crude oil rising above US$80 a barrel supported most vegetable oil markets in Asian hours.
US soyoil edged higher and the most-active September futures contract on the Dalian Commodities Exchange rose 0.4 per cent.
One trader in Shanghai said the rise in commodity prices in China was partly influenced by the 8.8-magnitude earthquake that rocked leading copper producer Chile last Saturday, spurring supply concerns.
- BUSINESS TIMES
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