PETALING JAYA: Rising crude palm oil (CPO) prices, which have hit a 13-year high, may have peaked as further upsides could be capped by increases in inventory levels.
Malaysia’s palm oil inventories rose to their highest level in four months in March, gaining 11% month-on-month to 1.45 million tonnes.
The growth, naturally, beat the consensus forecast. The benchmark palm oil futures closed up RM76 at RM3,726 per tonne yesterday.
TA Securities in a report yesterday said it remains cautious about a possible pullback in CPO prices in the second half of 2021. “However, we still expect the average CPO price for 2021 to be firmer and higher than 2020.
KUALA LUMPUR (March 12): The FBM KLCI continued to extend its losses today, finishing 0.84% or 13.72 points lower at 1,615.69.
According to Rakuten Trade Research head of equity sales Vincent Lau, the index was down due to profit taking ahead of the weekend amid mixed performances regionally.
Specifically, Supermax Corp Bhd, CIMB Group Holdings Bhd and Top Glove Corp Bhd posted declines today. While the FBM KLCI declined, indices such as the FBM ACE, FBM Small Cap and FBM Fledgling indices posted gains.
The FBM ACE was up 2.13% or 222.07 points higher at 10,665.19, while the Small Cap was up by 0.19% or 31.13 points at 16,806.82. Meanwhile, the Fledgling Index finished 0.77% or 164.52 points higher at 21,551.02.
WHY are plantation stocks not on the radar of investors even though crude palm oil (CPO) prices have gained as much as 18% from RM3,070 per tonne on Nov 3 last year to RM3,632 per tonne last Wednesday?
Analysts say there are several factors dampening prices, but warn that environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues that now plague the sector could be the most damaging if not swiftly addressed. This is because international investors are increasingly placing great value on such practices.
As Covid-19 vaccines are now available, investors have shifted their attention from glove makers and manufacturers of personal protective equipment to technology stocks, owing mainly to strong demand for semiconductors. The lack of interest in plantation stocks is palpable as reflected in the Bursa Malaysia plantation index.
At 9.08am, the FBM KLCI dipped 0.11 points to 1,581.43.
The early decliners inluded Malaysian Pacific Industries Bhd, Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia Bhd, KESM Industries Bhd, Euro Holdings Bhd, Unisem (M) Bhd, Ajinomoto (M) Bhd, Pentamaster Corp Bhd, Sarawak Oil Palms Bhd and UWC Bhd.
Bloomberg said global bonds continued to sell off and Asian stocks retreated after a bruising session for US shares and Treasuries.
The dollar strengthened, it said.
Rakuten Trade said fears over higher rates returned to haunt traders as the US 10-year Treasury yield topped 1.6% prompting a sell-off on Wall Street.
The research house said the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 560 points to close at 31,400 mark while the Nasdaq bore the brunt of the selling declined over 3% to just above the 13,100 level.
KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 26): The main index at Bursa Malaysia pared some of its loss at the midday break Friday, against the backdrop of skidding regional markets, while technology-related stocks on Bursa Malaysia came under selling pressure.
The fate of technology stocks mirrored the overnight performance at Wall Street where tech darlings all suffered, with Apple Inc, Tesla Inc, Amazon.com Inc, NVIDIA Corp and Microsoft Corp the biggest drags.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI was down 3.78 points to 1,577.76. The index had earlier slipped to a low of 1,577.53.
Market breadth was negative with 617 losers and 202 gainers, while 716 counters traded unchanged. Trading volume was 6.04 billion shares valued at RM3.29 billion.