April 3, 2003	Thursday	Muharram 30, 1424

KUALA LUMPUR, April 2: Malaysia’s palm oil futures closed higher on Wednesday due to a technical rebound and heavy covering on the physical sector, traders said.

At the close, benchmark third-month futures, June, rose 26 ringgit to 1,456 ringgit ($383.16) a ton after trading as low as 1,426 ringgit.

Overall volume was heavy 6,277 lots.

Freight rates from Malaysia and Indonesia, the world major palm oil producers, to main buyers such as India, China and Pakistan increased by $2 a ton this week.

But at a discount of $100 a ton to arch rival soyaoil, palm oil is still the world’s most-favoured edible oil, traders said.

Palm oil was being shipped to Red Sea ports and to Europe, through the Suez Canal, without disruptions, they said.

Traders and freight brokers said April bookings of palm oil for India had reached 370,000 tons so far for April shipments and would reach 400,000 tons for the month, similar to March.

China has booked 200,000 tons, Pakistan 90,000 tons and the Middle East 100,000 tons. They buy palm oil from Malaysia and Indonesia..—Reuters