March 08, 2007	Thursday	Safar 18, 1428

KUALA LUMPUR, March 7: Malaysian crude palm oil futures closed largely unchanged in slow trade on Wednesday as the market awaited a price outlook conference next week.

Bursa Malaysia is organising the annual palm oil price outlook conference from March 12 to 14, when industry analysts such as Dorab Mistry, James Fry, Thomas Mielke and others will present their views and give price forecasts.

Everyone is waiting to hear what price forecast comes from the conference. That is why the volumes are so low, one dealer said. The benchmark third-month May contract on the Bursa

Malaysia Derivatives exchange finished down 10 ringgit at 1,933 ringgit ($551) a ton. Other contracts were either marginally down or flat, except March, which was up 2 ringgit. Overall volume was down at 3,069 lots of 25 tons each, compared with around 12,000 lots on a routine day. The market rose 1 percent on Tuesday after three straight days of decline as players covered positions ahead of the conference.

The state-run Malaysian Palm Oil Board will release February exports, output and stocks data on March 12. On the same day, cargo surveyors will issue export numbers for March 1 to 10.

In Malaysia's physical market, crude palm oil for March shipment in the southern region was quoted at 1,940/1,945 ringgit per ton. Trades were done between 1,937.50 and 1,945 ringgit.Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for Feb. 1-28 fell 10.1 per cent to 856,192 tons from 952,753 shipped between Jan.—Reuters