Trader's Comment: CPO futures ended marginally lower after a range trading

CPO futures ended marginally lower after a range trading. Benchmark Jun09 hovered between 1985-1955 level through out the day before it finally settled RM8 lower at 1972. Both private cargo surveyors released their own 1-25 Mar export data today, where ITS & SGS reported a decline of 9.2% and 5.6% respectively. Nevertheless, CPO prices did not react too much on these data as traders had been expecting a much lower figure since yesterday. Overall market was uncertain today. ECBOT soy oil and Dalian palm fell more than 1% in Asian time trading. On the other hand, there were news saying that Indonesia decided to keep its 0% palm oil export tax in Apr and raising the CPO base export price to USD515 per tonne from USD480 per tonne in Mar, while Indian government had issued a formal order to abolish 20% import tax on crude soy oil.