Kencana warns of Q1 loss on rupiah, crude palm oil weakness

KENCANA Agri will report a net loss for the three months ended March 31, the palm oil producer announced late on Monday.

The loss is due to foreign exchange losses as a result of the Indonesian rupiah weakening against the US dollar, and because of lower average selling prices for crude palm oil.

One US dollar was worth 12,963 rupiah as at end-April, 4.6 per cent more than the 12,388 rupiah that one US dollar could buy at the end of 2014, according to data from Bloomberg.

Official daily crude palm oil prices provided by the Malaysian Palm Oil Council show that the commodity's settlement price fell 8.1 per cent to RM2,082 (S$771) per tonne over the same period.

Kencana shares were last quoted at 19 Singapore cents bid, 19.5 Singapore cents offered on Monday. No trades were matched.