Stocks to watch: Noble, Olam

REPORTS emerged on agriculture groups Noble and Olam before the start of trading on Wednesday which could have an impact on share price movements.

Two of Noble Group's senior US metals traders have left the company, following other high-profile departures amid a challenging operating environment, according to a Reuters report which cited sources.

Scott Evans and Jeff Romanek - both formerly from Goldman Sachs - joined Noble at a time when it was pushing into commodities such as copper, zinc, lead and nickel. Noble has been reducing its exposure to capital-intensive operations like trading copper, and is instead returning to aluminium and alumina. The latest departures come as the group considers the sale of core businesses to shore up market confidence following allegations from Iceberg Research and as prices of industrial raw materials trade at six-year lows, the report highlighted.

Olam expects the global supply of coffee to fall before the next crop from the world's biggest producer Brazil amid new buyers in the market and declining stockpiles. Global inventories will keep falling for at least the next six months, according to Olam's vice president (coffee trading) Rajat Kumar and senior trader Dwayne Schmidt. Coffee prices have dropped by 23 per cent this year, while data from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission reveals speculators are banking on lower prices due to the weaker Brazilian real. Global supply is expected to fall short of demand in 2015-2016, as it did last season.