Palm tracks crude plunge

CPO FUTURES

CRUDE palm oil (CPO) futures prices on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives closed lower yesterday tracking the plunge in crude oil prices and Chicago Board of Trade overnight, dealers said.

US light crude for January fell to a four-year low of US$40 per barrel despite the 2.2 million barrel per day output cut by Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

A dealer said the commodity’s outlook remained bleak.

He said the CPO market was expected to see range-bound trading today.

January 2009 fell RM45 to close at RM1,541 per tonne, February 2009 dropped RM45 to RM1,543, March 2009 slipped RM35 to RM1,545 and April 2009 went down RM35 to RM1,550.

Volume, however, rose to 8,696 lots from 6,905 lots yesterday and open interests increased to 83,049 contracts from 82,768 contracts previously.

On the physical market, December South was lower at RM1,565 per tonne from yesterday’s RM1,600.


RUBBER

MALAYSIAN rubber prices ended higher yesterday despite falling crude oil price, dealers said.

They said the market was relatively quiet on lack of interest from buyers as the market was looking for new direction following the drop in prices on the Tokyo rubber futures market.

“Most buyers adopted a wait-and-see attitude,” one of the dealers said.

At noon, the physical price for tyre-grade SMR 20 increased 3.5 sen to 408 sen per kg and latex in bulk gained two sen to 311.5 sen per kg.

The unofficial sellers’ closing price for tyre-grade SMR 20 at 5pm went up one sen to 408.5 sen per kg and latex in bulk edged up one sen to 312.5 sen per kg.


TIN

THE tin price on the Kuala Lumpur Tin Market (KLTM) closed lower yesterday by US$50 to settle at US$11,200 per tonne, despite the uptrend in the London Metal Exchange (LME).

The price on the LME,which usually dictates the direction of the KLTM, went up US$175 to settle at US$11,100 per tonne.

On the KLTM, turnover was higher at 61 tonnes versus 27 tonnes yesterday with local, Japanese and European traders contributing to the bulk of transactions.

At the opening level, bids stood at 41 tonnes compared with offers of 66 tonnes.

The price differential between the KLTM and LME narrowed to a premium of US$335 compared with US$560 previously. — Bernama