Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Trader's Comment: Palm oil futures recovered slightly from yesterday’s losses to end higher on positive external markets.

Palm oil futures recovered slightly from yesterday’s losses to end higher on positive external markets. Benchmark Sep09 initially fell to intra day low of 2220 after opened RM20 higher at 2250, but then immediately bounced back again and climbed steadily through out most of the sessions. It hit intra day high at 2275 in the afternoon session and ended RM29 higher at 2259. The bullish external market had lent strong support to the FCPO market today. Both Asian time NYMEX crude oil and eCBOT soy oil rebounded strongly from their overnight losses while Dalian palm also edged higher. This prompted short covering activities and helped to lift up FCPO prices after its previous 3 days of straight losses.

Breaking News-RTRS-Malaysia to list state-run plantation agency-report

KUALA LUMPUR, June 30 (Reuters) - Malaysia has plans to list a government-run plantation agency it says is the largest planter in the world, the country's prime minister was quoted as saying in the Business Times on Tuesday.
The Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) currently manages 800,000 hectares of plantations, although slightly more than half the estates owned by smallholders will not be under the listing.

Breaking News-RTRS-Malaysia relaxes foreign ownership of investment funds

KUALA LUMPUR, June 30 (Reuters) - Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Tuesday that some foreign shareholding rules for investment funds will be relaxed as this Southeast Asian country battles a growing outflow of foreign portfolio money.
Foreign owership limit of stock brokerages is to be increased to 70 percent from 49 percent while there can be 100 percent foreign control in wholesale fund management firms and a new 70 percent limit for unit trust companies, Najib said.

Breaking News-RTRS-India seeks palm oil import delays-Oil World

HAMBURG, June 30 (Reuters) - Some Indian importers are seeking to postpone palm oil shipments from June to July as large domestic vegetable oil stocks are pressuring prices, Hamburg-based oilseeds analysts Oil World said on Tuesday.
"This has raised some concern among exporters of palm oil about possible defaults," Oil World said. "Indian importers fear they will suffer losses because they have purchased large volumes significantly above current market prices."

Trader's Highlight

DJI-NEW YORK, June 30 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell on Tuesday as an unexpected drop in consumer confidence cooled recent optimism about an economic recovery, but Wall Street still closed out its best quarter in a decade.

The drop in the Conference Board's measure of consumer confidence in June suggested that the 18-month-long recession had yet to loosen its grip on the U.S. economy.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> slipped 82.38 points, or 0.97 percent, to 8,447.00. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> dropped 7.91 points, or 0.85 percent, to 919.32. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> shed 9.02 points, or 0.49 percent, to 1,835.04.

NYMEX-NEW YORK, June 30 (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil futures pared losses in post-settlement trading on Tuesday after industry inventory data showed crude stocks fell much more than expected last week.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, August crude was down 89 cents or 1.24 percent, at $70.60 a barrel. It had earlier settled down $1.60, or 2.24 percent, at $69.89, trading from $68.90 to $73.38, highest since Oct. 21 when crude hit $75.69.

CBOT-SOYBEANS - July up 11-1/4 cents per bushel at $12.26-1/4. November down 2-1/2 at $9.81.

Following weakness in corn. July/November spread continues to firm amid fears of limited supplies in the country. USDA's June plantings forecast pegged 2009 U.S. soy acreage at 77.483 million (31.4 million hectares), below an average of analysts' estimates for 78.121 million.

CBOT-SOYOIL - July down 0.76 cent at 35.02 cents a lb. Drop in soybeans and weakness in crude oil prices weigh on market.

FCPO-JAKARTA, June 30 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm futures dropped for a third consecutive trading day on Tuesday as lower-than-expected June palm oil exports sparked fears over the outlook for demand, traders said.

The benchmark September palm oil contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange lost 32 ringgit, or 1.4 percent, to 2,230 ringgit ($634.8) a tonne. Overall traded volume was 13,879 lots at 25 tonnes each.

The benchmark contract lost 12.9 percent in June, its biggest monthly fall since last October.

REGIONAL EQUITIES-BANGKOK, June 30 (Reuters) - Southeast Asian stock markets
erased early gains on Tuesday as late selling pulled Singapore and Malaysia off the two-week highs reached earlier on the back of hopes for economic recovery and higher oil prices.

Markets in the region posted healthy gains for the April-June quarter, recovering from their weak performance of the previous three months amid expectations that economic growth in Asia could rebound strongly. But some analysts doubted the rally would run much further for now.

Singapore's index <.FTSTI> ended up 0.7 percent on the day after an early gain of almost 2 percent to its highest since June 15, while Malaysia's index <.KLSE> was flat after climbing to its highest since June 16.

In Kuala Lumpur, palm plantation firm Sime Darby fell 1.4 percent and CIMB Bank was down 1.7 percent after saying it might revise up its target for return on equity

DJI Daily: Still in sideways


Market continue to trade in sideways manner. As for now, we are looking for the underline support at 8200-8000. Violation of it may provide may downside room. To the upside, immediate resistance remains at 8600-8800.

KLSE Daily: in Correction mode


Market had slowing down its upside move after failed to cover the upside gap left over since 16/6/2009 at 1083-1086. However, immediate technical landscape remains positive. To the downside, support is pegged at 1064-1059 (gap left over on 24/6/2009)followed by 1046-1044 (gap left over on 24/6/2009).

FKLI Daily: Facing tough resistance


Market close facing tough resistance at 1092. However, the immediate technical landscape remains positive. As for now, downside support is pegged at 1055-1050 followed by 1030.

FCPO Daily: Weaken


Overall technical outlook weaken further and looks may want to challenge the underline support at 2155-2149. As we mention earlier, any significant breakout from the either way may provide more clearer market direction. Currently, immediate upside resistance is at 2294-2296 (unfilled gap left over since 29/6/2009).