April 18, 2008	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 11, 1429

KUALA LUMPUR, April 17: Malaysian crude palm oil futures fell from three-week high on Thursday as investors booked profit following a surge in supplies due to higher output.

But dealers said rising supply was a temporary situation and strong demand from top edible oil consumers should help absorb additional quantities of palm oil in the market.

The benchmark July contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange fell 42 ringgit, or 1.14 per cent, to 3,632 ringgit ($1,153) per ton. A lot of oil is flowing around, refiners are well stocked.

This is not good for the nearby months, people are selling. Other traded months fell between 25 and 42 ringgit a ton in overall trade of 12,602 lots of 25 tons each.

Palm oil, which has risen nearly 20 per cent this year, is likely to remain firm in the coming weeks on steady demand from leading consumers China and India, another dealer said.It just a temporary thing that we see a lot of availability of oil for April delivery. It will get sucked out soon, he said.

Spot soyaoil at the Chicago Board of Trade rose 1.01 per cent after closing lower in overnight US trade. The most-active September contract in China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange fell 0.32 per cent.

India said on Wednesday it has asked state-run firms to import one million tons of edible oils to improve supplies and allay fears of shortages of cereals in Asia’s third-largest economy.

A leading trade body said India’s imports of edible oils in March rose by nearly a third to 421,686 from the same month a year ago. In Malaysia’s physical market, crude palm oil for April shipment in the southern region was quoted at 3,640/3,660 ringgit a ton. Trades were done at 3,650 ringgit.—Reuters