Kuala Lumpur, September 24, 2001 - CRUDE palm oil futures prices on theMalaysia Derivatives Exchange (MDEX) plunged sharply in early trading onfears that the US military operations in the Arabian Sea would hinder palmoil shipment to Pakistan. The sell-off move was short-lived as aggressivetechnical and short-covering buying emerged when the market slipped belowthe nine hundred ringgit per tonne level and lifted the market to closeFriday slightly higher.The December futures ranged widely from an intra-week’s high of RM999 toRM890 and settled the week moderately higher at RM993, up RM11 per tonnefrom a week ago.

Based on chart, the December futures ended the week positive following alate break above their downtrend channel resistance line. Based on thedaily chart, the December futures have an important chart support at theRM970-RM975 levels. Failure to break below this support level would signalthat the upward momentum is continuing and send the market higher for atest of the recovery target at the RM1,010-RM1,020 levels. Minorresistance for this week is seen at the RM 1,030-RM1,035 levels.The 12-day exponentially smoothed moving-average price line (ESA) hasindicated a trend-reversal and ended the week lower at RM987. Closing onFriday above the ESA-line showed that an upward wave has started.Technically, the daily stochastics triggered the buy signal on Sept 18 andended the week on a positive note. The oscillator per cent K settled abovethe oscillator per cent D and closed the week sharply higher at 47.89% and32.04% respectively.Analysis of the daily stochastics shows that the immediate-term market hasroom for further upside trading this week.The daily Momentum Index ended the week bullish and called for more upwardtrading this week. The MI closed Friday higher at 95.49 points.The Moving-Average Convergence/Divergence (MACD) finally triggered the buysignal and indicated that an upward cycle has begun. The MACD closed theweek above the trigger-line and settled sharply higher in the negativeterritory at minus 47.09 and minus 48.09 points respectively.