KL palm oil holds up on pre-holiday buying

KL palm oil holds up on pre-holiday buying

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters): Malaysian palm oil futures held firm
on Friday on buying from players covering ahead of a shorter
trading week ahead, traders said.

The market will be closed on Monday for the Muslim New Year.

Sentiment was still not very good, with players worried about
growing stocks of crude palm oil due to the government's slow
delivery of its promise to burn excess oil in the market.

"The burning issue in the market is whether all this oil is
going to be burnt," said a trader, referring to a government
pledge to use some 600,000 tons of oil as fuel for energy plants.

An industry source working with the government on the proposed
burning said on Friday the plan was progressing well and would
take off very soon.

The benchmark third-month June futures closed unchanged at 830
ringgit (US$219.73) a ton after moving between a high of 840 and
low of 822.

Volume was a modest 1,592 lots.

The physical sector also noted some covering ahead of the
holiday.

Traders said the physical sector was mostly quiet as players
waited for fresh leads.

Physical March (south and central) was offered at 810 ringgit
against bids of 805. No evening trade was reported but in the
morning the contracts traded at 810 ringgit.

April (south) was offered at 815 ringgit and bid at 810. It
was traded at 810.

April (central) saw offers at 810 ringgit against bids of 815.
No trade was reported in the evening. In the morning south traded
at 810 and central between 810 and 815.