CPO futures dip as dealers book profits

CPO FUTURES

KUALA LUMPUR: Crude palm oil futures contracts on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives closed lower yesterday, as investors booked profits after Monday's gains, dealers said.

March 2013 depreciated by RM10 to close at RM2,390 a tonne, April 2013 lost RM16 to RM2,389 a tonne, May 2013 dwindled RM14 to RM2,399 and June 2013 was RM15 lower at RM2,408.

Turnover tumbled to 19,877 lots from Monday's 32,005 lots while open interest slipped to 185,624 contracts from 198,360 contracts recorded previously.

On the physical market, March South was unchanged at RM2,390 a tonne.

OIL

LONDON: Oil rose towards US$111 (US$1.00 = RM3.09) a barrel yesterday. Bucking a five-day losing streak, as the North Sea Brent pipeline remained closed for a third day and investors bet on strong Chinese oil demand.

Brent crude futures rose 53 cents to US$110.62 a barrel at 1245 GMT. Meanwhile, US crude added 21 cents to US$90.33.

“I view the gains so far this morning as more short covering off the pipeline news rather than any surge of new buying interest coming into the market,” said Dominick Chirichella of the Energy Management Institute in New York.

RUBBER

KUALA LUMPUR: Local rubber prices turned higher at yesterday’s closing in line with the uptrend in rubber prices on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange, dealers said.

The dealer said gains in rubber prices were spurred by buying interest after the downtrend the last few days with traders buying rubber products at the low level.

At noon, the Malaysian Rubber Board’s official physical price for tyre-grade SMR20 appreciated by 12 sen to 886.5 sen a kg and latex-in-bulk added three sen to 618 sen.

The unofficial closing price for tyre-grade SMR20 improved by 11 sen to 888 sen a kg and latex-in-bulk appreciated by three sen to 618 sen a kg.

GOLD

LONDON: Gold prices rose on yesterday, snapping four days of losses, as expectations that central banks would opt to maintain ultra-loose monetary policy this week helped push European stocks to a two-year high and weighed on the dollar.

“There’s more of a realisation that economic growth is not yet at a level that any country is happy with, and that therefore we could see further easing.” Mitsui analyst David Jollie said.

Spot gold rose 0.6 per cent at US$1,582.15 at 1305 GMT, while US gold futures for April delivery were up US$9.30 at US$1,581.70.

TIN

KUALA LUMPUR: The tin price on the Kuala Lumpur Tin Market (KLTM) closed unchanged yesterday at US$23,450 a tonne, due to a correction on the London Metal Exchange (LME), dealers said.

The metal price on the LME, however, rose by US$220 to US$23,375 a tonne.

At the opening bell, bids outnumbered offers by 29 tonnes to 24 tonnes. Turnover was lower at 24 tonnes from 35 tonnes on Monday, with European, Japanese and local traders dominating trade.

The premium between the KLTM and the LME narrowed to US$505 a tonne from US$725 a tonne on Monday. - Agencies