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Malaysia palm seen down on weak exports, soy close

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures are expected to stage another weak start on Tuesday, following through on weak export data released a day earlier and after a holiday in the Chicago soyoil market overnight.

Traders said local futures were expected to open about two ringgit lower as weak fundamentals persisted. A port strike in India could pull sentiment down further, they said. April futures resistance seen at 1,176 ringgit a tonne.

April futures support seen at 1,126 ringgit.

Third-month futures closed on Friday at 1,146 ringgit.

"The port strike in India is worrying," said a local dealer. He said this meant no oil from vessels will be unloaded.

Indian port and dock workers said they would go ahead with their proposed indefinite strike after a marathon seven-hour talk with the government officials on Monday failed to yield a breakthrough.

The port and dock employees are demanding wage increases. Officials said last week that the union workers had demanded a 100 percent rise in wages while the government was willing to a 28 percent increase.Traders said the local market was still jittery about exports in January after the weak data presented for the first-half of the month by cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS) on Monday.

SGS said exports for January 1-15 were at 278,252 tonnes compared to 399,473 for the first-half of December.

Traders said the market would now be looking out for 1999 production, export and closing stock data from the Palm Oil Registration and Licensing Authority on Thursday. Private forecaster Ivan Wong is expected to release his own estimates on Wednesday.-Reuters