Crude palm oil settled flat on subdued demand in domestic market following weak Malaysian palm oil export data. Malaysia palm oil exports during Feb 1-28 fell by 14.2% compared to a month earlier on subdued demand from China, European Union, India & Subcontinent and Middle East, data showed. Malaysia's palm oil exports India during Feb 1-28 slumped by 18.11% to 181,860 tons as compared to 222,100 tons imported during Jan 1-31. Palm oil imports fell for the third consecutive month by 11.56 per cent to 608,762 tonnes in January, on account of good domestic oilseeds production and better availability of edible oils, industry body Solvent Extractors Association (SEA) said. India, the world’s leading vegetable oil buyer, had imported 688,393 tonnes palm oil in January 2015. The country’s total vegetable oil imports fell by 19 per cent to 1.24 million tonnes (mt) in January this year from 1.26 mt in the year-ago period. “Import has reduced due to good Kharif oilseeds crop and better domestic availability of edible oils and utilisation of stock. Currency crunch due to demonetisation has slowed down the purchases by end consumers also affected the demand and import to some extent,” SEA said in a statement. Technically market is under fresh selling as market has witnessed gain in open interest by 14.92% to settled at 4690, now CPO is getting support at 535 and below same could see a test of 530.5 level, And resistance is now likely to be seen at 542.1, a move above could see prices testing 544.7.

Trading Ideas:

# CPO trading range for the day is 530.5-544.7.

# Crude palm oil settled flat on subdued demand in domestic market following weak Malaysian palm oil export data.

# Indonesia will set its export tax for crude palm oil (CPO) in February at $18 per tonne, up from $3 per tonne last month.

# Palm oil imports fell for the third consecutive month by 11.56 per cent to 608,762 tonnes in January.

Crude palm oil prices in spot market gained by 0.70 rupees and settled at 549.30 rupees.