FCPO Related News (Wed, Apr 17)

SINGAPORE, April 16 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures ended flat on Tuesday, as a recent commodities rout that dented investors' appetite for riskier assets offset earlier gains on bargain hunting. Gold fell to its lowest in more than two years and Brent crude dropped below $100 per barrel for the first time since July as a shaky global economic outlook drove investors to liquidate assets, extending a sell-off in commodities into a third day.

The weak sentiment spread to the vegetable oil markets, with palm oil falling to a low of 2,281 ringgit per tonne on Monday its weakest since December, and the most active Dalian soybean oil contract tumbling to the lowest since its initiation. "The market is quiet today due to uncertain factors in the external markets. Prices look to be supported at the 2,250 ringgit level and face resistance at 2,320 ringgit," said a trader with foreign commodities brokerage in Malaysia.

The new benchmark July contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange ended flat at 2,301 ringgit ($757)per tonne.     Total traded volumes stood at 40,241 lots of 25 tonnes each, higher than the average 35,000 lots.     Technical analysis showed a bearish target at 2,249 ringgit per tonne remained unchanged for Malaysian palm oil, Reuters market analyst Wang Tao said. Malaysian palm oil shipments for the first half of the month fell by 4 percent from a month ago, said one cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services, while another surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance reported a steeper 7.2 percent drop.

         

Market participants will be keeping a close watch on the next export data for the April 1 to 20 period to gauge stocks level. A 10 percent increase in shipments in March helped ease inventory level to 2.17 million tonnes, the lowest in seven months. In other markets, Brent crude sank below $100 a barrel for the first time in nine months on Tuesday in a broad commodities rout after recent weak data from China and the United States spurred worries about oil demand.

   

In other vegetable oil markets, U.S. soyoil for May delivery  gained 0.8 percent in late Asian trade. The most-active September soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodities Exchange recouped some losses after falling as much as 2.4 percent earlier.          [Reuters]

Crude palm oil futures on Malaysia’s derivatives exchange end flat on subdued buying interest in the physical market at a time when oil-palm yields in Southeast Asia are improving and capping palm oil’s upside. The market will likely "trade sideways with a downward bias for the rest of the week," a trading executive at a foreign brokerage says tipping the market to hover around MYR2,250/ton support at MYR2,315/ton cap on Wednesday. New benchmark July CPO ends flat at MYR2,301/ton.           [Dow Jones Newswire]

Today’s Support and Resistance for benchmark July contract is located around 2,286 and 2,327 respectively.