January 22, 2003	Wednesday	Ziqa’ad 18, 1423

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 21: Malaysian crude palm oil futures pared losses by the close on Tuesday, helped by short covering, after falling to their lowest level in nearly two months.

The market had earlier broken the key 1,600 ringgit support level, triggering heavy technical selling, traders said.

The benchmark third-month April contract ended down nine ringgit at 1,591 ringgit ($418.68) a ton, after touching 1,582, the lowest since November 29.

Volume was heavy at 8,015 lots, up from Monday’s 3,449 lots.

Wong eatimated Malaysia’s palm oil output in January at 850,000-855,000 tons, down seven per cent from December.

He put end-January stocks at 1.01-1.02 million tons, down from the official 1.14 million tons at end-December.

In the physical sector, the January/February crude palm oil contract was offered at 1,615 ringgit a ton down 15 ringgit from Monday against bids of 1,600 ringgit for southern and central regions.—Reuters