Monday, November 12, 2001 (The Star) - CRUDE palm oil futures prices atthe Malaysia Derivatives Exchange (MDEX) surged on aggressive speculativebuying and short covering prompted by news that the Malaysian governmentintended to extend zero export duty on 1.3 million tonnes of crude palmoil in 2002. The most active January contract pushed above its immediateresistance at the RM1,050 level and closed the week with huge gains.The January futures trended from a weekly low of RM1,038 to RM1,120 andfinished Friday with strong gains at RM1,120, up RM90 per tonne from aweek ago.

Based on charts, the January futures closed the week constructive and hadnot given any indication that the upward rally has fizzled. An immediatechart-support is seen for this week at the RM1,100-RM1,085 levels. Themarket is deemed to be positive if these levels are not violated.Chart-resistance for this week stands at the RM1,130-RM1,140 levels.Penetration of this barrier should provide the technical support for andupward move to the RM1,175-RM1,180 levels.The 12-day exponentially smoothed mo-- ving-average price line (ESA)remained bullish during Friday’s close and finished the week sharplyhigher at RM1,033. Based on the ESA-lie, the immediate market is in abullish cycle.Technically, the daily stochastics closed the week in the bullishextended-move zones and triggered the sell-signal. The oscillator percentK ended below the oscillator percent D and settled the week lower at81.52% and 86.56% respectively.The daily Momentum Index (MI) extended its move above the 100-point markand continued to signal that the upward rally is intact. The MI ended theweek sharply higher at 120.40 points.The Moving-Average Convergence/Divergence (MACD) retained its bullishsignal on Friday and points to more upward trading this week. The MACDclosed above the trigger-line and settled higher in the positive territoryat 38.72 points and 34.09 points respectively.