CPO Rises On Fresh Buying Interest; Weaker Ringgit

CRUDE palm oil futures on the Malaysia Derivatives Exchange closed higher yesterday backed by fresh buying, dealers said. They said the higher overnight soyaoil prices on the Chicago Board of Trade boosted buying sentiment in the CPO futures market.

At the close, the May 2010 and July 2010 contracts rose RM19 each to settle at RM2,515 a tonne and RM2,490 respectively.

June 2010 and August 2010 increased RM18 each to RM2,501 and RM2,488 respectively. Volume increased to 11,918 contracts from 11,659 contracts on Wednesday while open interests fell to 66,281 contracts from 67,525 contracts previously.In the physical market, May South increased to RM2,520 a tonne from RM2,500.

Ringgit weakens against US dollar

The ringgit closed slightly lower against the US dollar yesterday as players continued to take advantage of recent gains, dealers said.

They said market players also reduced their positions amid uncertainties in the global market, with the debt issue of Greece continuing to raise some concerns. "However, the market players supported the local currency by selling off the US dollar today (yesterday)," another dealer said.

At 5pm, the local currency weakened against the greenback to 3.1955/1965 from 3.1950/1900 on Wednesday. "The ringgit-buying activity was spurred by the active participation of exporters," he added. The ringgit traded between 3.1940 and 3.2090 against the US dollar yesterday.

Against other major currencies, the ringgit was slightly lower against the Singapore dollar at 2.3310/3339 from 2.3287/3330 on Wednesday but rose against the Japanese yen to 3.4257/4275 from 3.4263/4320 previously.

It strengthened against the euro to 4.2852/2887 from 4.2912/2982 on Wednesday and decreased against the British pound to 4.9358/9380 from 4.9264/9347 previously.