March 22, 2003	Saturday	Muharram 18, 1424

KUALA LUMPUR, March 21: Crude palm oil (CPO) prices on Malaysia’s Derivatives Exchange are expected to remain bearish in the coming week due to the US-led war on Iraq, dealers said on Friday.

There is a lot of selling due to the war. The market will be bearish,” a dealer with a foreign brokerage said.

And it will be worse if the war prolongs he warned.

CPO prices for April closed at 1,461 ringgit (384 dollars) a ton at the end of the week.

Another dealer said the market would trade between 1,400 ringgit a ton and 1,480 ringgit a ton.

Malaysia’s key crude palm oil buyers are India, Pakistan, China and the European Union, which account for 70 per cent of the country’s exports.

In the futures market, the April contract fell 49 ringgit over the week to settle at 1,461 ringgit a ton. The May contract was down 44 ringgit at 1,460 while the June contract lost 44 ringgit to end at 1,455. The July contract lost 45 ringgit at 1,450 and August fell 47 ringgit to end at 1,442. The average daily price for April was 1,481.2 ringgit a ton. —AFP