April 8, 2003	Tuesday	Safar 5, 1424

KUALA LUMPUR, April 7: Palm oil futures surged in Monday’s late trade to close sharply higher, fuelled by talk of Malaysia’s participation in Iraq’s food-for-oil programme.

Palm oil’s benchmark June futures ended 28 ringgit up at 1,480 ($389.47) per ton after posting a gain of only four ringgit in the morning. Final volume was a heavy 6,729 lots.

Vegetable ghee is made exclusively from palm oil, whose biggest producers are Malaysia and Indonesia.

The market’s main cargo surveyor, Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS), estimated an export of 1.0 million tons for March, against an official figure of 765,543 tons for February. SGS’ next data for April 1-10 is due on Thursday.

In physical trade of crude palm oil (CPO), contracts for April and May were offered by sellers at 1,510 ringgit a ton up 25 ringgit from Friday against bids at 1,500 in both the southern and central regions.—Reuters