FCPO Related News (Mon, Dec 3)

Crude palm oil futures on Malaysia’s derivatives exchange fell Friday, pressured by technical-driven selling and forecasts for higher palm oil stockpiles at the start of next year. Declines however, were limited by a rebound in November exports, market participants said. The benchmark February contract at Bursa Malaysia Derivatives ended 0.7% lower at 2,370 ringgit a metric ton after moving in a MYR2,359-MYR2,391 range.

Palm oil exports from the world’s no. 2 producer Malaysia rose 5.2% from the previous month to 1.65 million tons, according to cargo surveyor SGS (Malaysia) Bhd. Another cargo surveyor Intertek Agri Services put November shipments at 1.66 million tons, an increase of 3.8%. "The rise in export numbers could help to prevent further stock-builds. We believe November stockpiles could be around 2.60 million tons" compared with previous estimates of 2.65 million-2.70 million tons, a trading executive at a Kuala Lumpur-based brokerage said.

Palm oil prices could recover to MYR2,500/ton by March next year, said Sabri Ahmad, chief executive at Felda Global Ventures, Malaysia’s fourth-largest plantation company by market capitalization. "Prices have eased to a level that is low enough to attract buyers," Mr. Sabri said. Mr. Sabri’s remarks mirrored comments by leading oilseed analyst Thomas Mielke, who predicted earlier in the day at an industry conference on the Indonesian island of Bali that CPO will rise to MYR3,200 as "the world needs more palm oil to offset the reductions [in output of other types of vegetable oil]."           [Dow Jones Newswire]

NUSA DUA, Indonesia, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Malaysia, the world's second largest palm oil producer, will announce details of its proposed cut to crude palm oil export taxes by the end of December, a government official said on Thursday. "We will make an announcement on the exact pricing in the last few days of December," said the official who declined to be named due to sensitivity of the issue. The tax, due to take effect on Jan. 1, is aimed at making crude exports more competitive in the face of a tax cut for refined grades by top producer Indonesia last year.

The Malaysian government has proposed pegging the tax at between 4.5 and 8.5 percent depending on the market prices, a cut from the current 23 percent. (Reporting by Michael Taylor and Niluksi Koswanage; Editing by Miral Fahmy)

Oil rose on Friday, notching its first monthly gain since August, as the market continued to balance risks to demand from the U.S. budget standoff against concerns about disruption to Middle East supplies.           [Reuters]

Today’s Support and Resistance for benchmark February contract is located around 2,380 and 2,410 respectively.