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.
Malaysia’s super-rich, hard hit by the market following the outbreak of Covid-19, saw billions being wiped out of their fortunes. On the other hand, entrepreneurs involved in the making of rubber gloves minted more money, while new billionaires emerged from the tech manufacturing sector as shares of their companies soared in 2020.
THE outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 has delivered a brutal hand to the country’s economy, bringing unprecedented challenges to the general public and corporate sector.
And if this may offer some consolation amid the plunging values of your retirement and savings accounts, some of Malaysia’s wealthiest individuals have lost lots of money too, a survey on Malaysia’s 40 Richest individuals for 2020 showed.
KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 4): The main index of Bursa Malaysia reversed its earlier loss and climbed in the mid-morning today, but gains were seen capped against a backdrop of lacklustre regional markets.
At 10am, the FBM KLCI had risen 1.61 points to 1,584.60. The index earlier slipped to a low of 1,581.36.
Gainers led losers by 469 to 282, while 397 counters traded unchanged. Trading volume was 1.6 billion shares valued at RM884.42 million.
The top gainers included Malaysian Pacific Industries Bhd, See Hup Consolidated Bhd, Kobay Technology Bhd, Genetec Technology Bhd, ViTrox Corp Bhd and Khind Holdings Bhd.
The actively traded stocks included Luster Industries Bhd, KNM Group Bhd, Sanichi Technology Bhd, Dagang NeXchange Bhd (DNeX), AbleGroup Bhd, Iris Corp Bhd and PA Resources Bhd.
Steady market: People work at an oil palm estate in Melaka. With low brought-forward stockpile and current seasonal low output, CPO prices will stay lofty in the first quarter.
PETALING JAYA: Forward sales could likely dampen palm planters’ highly anticipated stronger set of results in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Maybank Investment Bank (Maybank IB) Research expects those with forward sales, depending on the size and price locked-in before Dec 31,2020 for delivery in 2021, to see some accounting fair value (FV) losses on derivative financial instruments (FI).
“However, these accounting FV losses will likely reverse and be recognised as accounting profits in 2021, ” the research unit said in its plantations’ fourth quarter 2020 results preview.