August 17, 2002	Saturday	Jamadi-us-Saani 7, 1423

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 16: Malaysia’s palm oil futures firmed across the board on Friday, with overall volume soaring to a new record due to a technical covering and talk of an improvement in exports, traders said.

The new benchmark third-month November contract rose 29 ringgit to 1,528 ringgit ($402.11) a ton. Overall volume jumped to 8,819 lots compared with 4,416 lots on Thursday.

Cargo surveyors ITS and SGS are expected to release August 1-20 palm oil export data on Tuesday. On the same day, private forecaster Ivan Wong will issue his fresh estimates for August palm oil output, end-month stocks and exports.

Some physical traders said exports could reach 590,000 tons in the first 20 days of August, up from 579,759 tons in July 1-20.

Freight brokers said vessels bookings to main buyers India, China and Pakistan for August had so far reached around 300,000 tons, 200,000 tons and 120,000 tons respectively.

They said the current vessel bookings to India suggested that the world’s largest edible oil consumer was stepping up its edible oil purchases because of its worst drought in more than 15 years.

Normally India buys around 250,000 tons of palm oil from Malaysia and Indonesia a month.

In the physical market, August/September crude palm oil for the southern and central zones saw bids at 1,530 ringgit a ton against sale offers at 1,540 ringgit.

Trades were reported at 1,520 to 1,530 ringgit for both sides.—Reuters