Trader's Comment: Palm oil futures ended generally higher on strong export and supportive external vege oil market

Palm oil futures ended generally higher on strong export and supportive external vege oil market. Steady overnight NYMEX crude oil coupled with the release of strong export data for the period of 1-10 Mar by private cargo surveyor ITS (an increase of 11.2%) prior to market open sent Benchmark May09 to gap up RM40 higher at 1980 during opening bell. FCPO prices had then rose steadily through out the rest of the day until it hit intra day high of 2010 in the second session, despite the second private cargo surveyor SGS reported a mere increase of 1.2% of export data. The emerged of some profit taking activities in late trading saw Benchmark May09 to ease off slightly and settle RM55 higher at 1995. Supportive external factors had also helped lifting the CPO market sentiment. Both eCBOT soy oil and Dalian palm edged up higher for more than 2%. Traders were also anticipating some good comments from the top industry analyst in tomorrow’s long awaited Price Outlook Conference. World renown vegetable oil speaker Mr. Dorab Mistry in a sideline interview said Malaysian end stocks may draw down to 1.5 million tones also had added the market sentiment.