July 16, 2002	Tuesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 5, 1423

KUALA LUMPUR, July 15: Malaysian palm oil futures ended limit-up on Monday, with overall volume touching an all-time high of nearly 10,000 lots, as players took inspiration from gains in CBOT soyabeans and ignored poor exports data.

The benchmark third-month futures, September were 100 ringgit higher at 1,473 ringgit ($387.63) a ton. Volume was a weighty 9,790 lots.

Cargo surveyor SGS said palm oil exports reached 366,413 tons for the first 15 days of July compared with 431,106 tons for the same period in June. Some traders had expected the number to reach at least 400,000 tons.

I have never seen such high volume in my life before, said one dealer.

We are still riding on CBOT (Chicago Board of Trade) and using its fundamentals. I don’t think we can justify today’s gains because exports are not good. We may see some profit taking tomorrow, but this depends on how CBOT behaves tonight, he said.

Short covering pushed up the physical market, but some traders were cautious.

There are plenty of deals, but I am not comfortable with the volume on the futures market. It’s high, but I don’t think it’s healthy, said one trader.

This tells us there are too many speculators in the market, he said.

CPO July and August contracts saw bids at 1,480 ringgit in the southern as well as central regions against sale offers at 1,490 ringgit.

Trade was reported at 1,435 to 1,480 ringgit for both sides.—Reuters