CPO futures to see quiet trading next week

KUALA LUMPUR: The crude palm oil (CPO) futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives is expected to see a quiet trading next week due to weaker export sentiment, a dealer said.

Palm oil trader David Ng said higher stockpile expectations ahead of the official data would buoy the prices to hover between RM3,650 and RM3,800 per tonne.

Singapore-based Palm Oil Analytics’ owner and co-founder Dr Sathia Varqa said the CPO futures market will be focusing on the Malaysian Palm Oil Board’s data due to be released on Wednesday.

"Market attention will be on the palm oil production changes in February," he told Bernama.

In the meantime, CGS-CIMB Research anticipates CPO price to trade at between RM3,200 and RM3,700 per tonne in March 2021 due to projected low inventory in Malaysia and palm oil supply recovery in the second quarter of 2021 forecast (2921F).

The research house expects Malaysia's palm oil inventory to grow 7.6 per cent month-on-month, but decline 16.2 per cent year-on-year to 1.43 million tonnes at end-February 2021F due to a slower decline in production compared to exports.

For the week just ended, the market was traded mostly higher, tracking strength from better performance of soybean oil prices, as well as a rebound in crude oil price.

On a weekly basis, CPO futures contracts for March 2021 fell RM39 to RM3,947 per tonne, April 2021 lower RM31 at RM3,889 per tonne, May 2021 eased RM1 to RM3,741 per tonne, and June 2021 reduced RM7 to RM3,594 per tonne.

Weekly volume declined to 268,358 lots from 285,584 lots the previous week, while open interest increased to 251,949 contracts from 240,111 contracts a week earlier.

The physical CPO price for March South inched down by RM40 to RM3,960 per tonne. - Bernama