The palm oil contract for May delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange surged 2.4 percent to 2,608 ringgit ($638) per tonne at the end of the trading day. It earlier reached a new three-week and intraday high of 2,612 ringgit. Traded volume stood at 48,005 lots of 25 tonnes each on Friday.
Energy
Brent crude was up 1.29% to US$40.96 per barrel.
Forex
Ringgit up 0.63% to 4.0115 versus the US dollar at 3.51pm.
Top foreign stories
Japan’s negative rates a looming headache for central bank: Driving interest rates below zero, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) has turned a comatose government bond market into an enormous free-for-all, complicating the central bank’s own efforts to kick-start growth and end deflation. — Reuters
Abe expected to delay sales tax rise: In late 2014, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe caught markets and voters off-guard when he postponed an unpopular sales tax hike and called a snap election. Less than two years later, the only surprise will be if he doesn’t repeat the play. With consumption weak, wage growth limp and emerging economy slowdowns clouding Japan’s growth, economists bet Abe will again delay raising the tax to 10% from 8%, due in April 2017, — Reuters
Top local stories
Public Bank’s Tay sees more squeeze on industry net margins: Public Bank Bhd
says the banking industry’s net interest margin will continue to be squeezed due to stiff competition for loans and managing cost of deposits. Managing director and chief executive officer Tan Sri Tay Ah Lek said Public Bank will focus on productivity and cost efficiency, apart from its current focus of growing the retail banking’s organic growth. — StarBiz
Maybank appoints new chairmen for subsidiaries: Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) has appointed Datuk Mohaiyani Shamsudin as chairman of Maybank Investment Bank and Datuk R. Karunakaran as chairman of Etiqa Insurance Bhd and Etiqa Takaful Bhd. Maybank said the changes in chairmanship in key subsidiaries followed the retirement of some directors. — StarBiz
Deal inked with Mitsui, Zepp for BBCC: BBCC Development Sdn Bhd has signed agreements with Mitsui Fudosan (Asia) Pte Ltd and Zepp Hall Network Inc for the proposed multi-billion ringgit Bukit Bintang City Centre (BBCC). Eco World Development, which is part of the JV, said on Monday the mall, with an estimated gross development cost of RM1.6bil, will transform the retail landscape in Kuala Lumpur. - StarBiz
El Nino seen cutting Malaysia palm oil output by 2mil tonnes: Palm oil output in Malaysia is estimated to fall by 2 million tonnes from a year earlier in the oil year ending September 2016 due to the effects of El Nino, leading industry analyst Dorab Mistry said. The decline in production, the sharpest in at least seven years, could bring stronger rallies to benchmark palm oil prices, which have risen 5% in the last two weeks to a two-year high of RM2,726 a tonne on Friday. — Reuters
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