Palm futures dip on profit taking avtivities

CPO FUTURES

CRUDE palm oil futures on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives ended lower on profit-taking activities yesterday, dealers said.

October 2011 and November 2011 decreased RM33 each to RM2,842 and RM2,830 a tonne respectively, December 2011 lost RM20 to RM2,844 a tonne and January 2012 shed RM32 to RM2,846.

Volume rose to 15,240 lots from Wednesday's 28,080 lots while open interest went up to 143,285 contracts, from 142,442 recorded on Wednesday .

On the physical market, October South fell RM15 to RM2,860 a tonne.

OIL

NEW YORK: Brent and US crude futures extended losses yesterday in choppy trading after data showed initial jobless claims fell last week in the US, but only from a level in the previous week that was revised higher.

Weak economic data from China had already weighed on prices ahead of the jobless claims report.

ICE Brent November crude was down US$1.61 (US$1.00 = RM3.20) to US$109.75 a barrel by 1240 GMT, having fallen to US$109.37 after the data. The day’s high trade was US$111.87.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, November crude fell US$1.17 to US$84.40 a barrel, trading from US$83.94 to US$85.39.

RUBBER

THE Malaysian rubber market closed mixed yesterday amid supply shortage in Thailand, dealers said.

“Traders are worried over the floods in the largest rubber-producing country which may disrupt supply of the commodity used to make tyres and gloves,” a dealer said.

The Malaysian Rubber Board’s official physical price for tyre-grade SMR20 slid 3 sen to 1,314 sen a kg while latex-in-bulk gained ½ sen to 832.5 sen.

The unofficial closing price for the tyre-grade SMR 20 fell 7.5 sen to 1,310 sen while latex-in-bulk shed 3.5 sen to 829 sen.

TIN

TIN price on the Kuala Lumpur Tin Market (KLTM) remained unchanged at US$22,400 a tonne as the market remained cautious, dealers said yesterday.

"Buyers remained sidelined awaiting leads from the London Metal Exchange (LME) today. They may enter the market tomorrow," a dealer said.

The tin price on LME rose US$650 to US$23,050 per tonne in overnight trading.

On the local front, turnover slipped one tonne to 40 tonnes with Japanese, European and Malaysian traders accounting for the yesterday's transaction.
At the opening bell, bids amounted to 43 tonnes while offers stood at 40 tonnes.
The price differential between the KLTM and the LME was at a discount of US$310 per tonne against a premium of US$340 per tonne yesterday.(Business Times)