SPOOKED by India's decision on Tuesday to raise import tax on crude palm oil (CPO), refined, bleached and deodorise (rbd) palm oil and palm olein, and the continued rise in palm oil stocks, research houses have turned bearish on the plantation sector.
Many have now taken an “underweight” stance on the sector, downgraded key plantation stocks like PPB Oil Palms Bhd, IOI Corp Bhd, Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd and Golden Hope Plantations Bhd to either “sell” or “take profit” on expectation of weaker CPO prices, and trimmed their earnings forecasts for this year.