CPO futures likely to trade higher next week

KUALA LUMPUR: The crude palm oil (CPO) futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives is expected to trade higher next week owing to bargain-hunting activities, a dealer said.

Palm oil trader David Ng said expectation of a weak output would keep negative sentiment at bay.

"We expect CPO to hover between RM4,550 a tonne and RM4,850 per tonne,” he told Bernama.

Yesterday, cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance reported that Malaysian palm oil export products for November rose 13.8 per cent to 1.68 million tonnes from 1.48 million tonnes shipped the previous month.

For the week just ended, Malaysian CPO futures finished mostly lower, tracking weakness in the soybean oil market on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT).

On a Friday-to-Thursday basis, December 2021 decreased RM94 to RM5,175 a tonne, January 2022 dipped RM115 to RM4,922 a tonne, February 2022 slipped RM199 to RM4,650 a tonne, and March 2022 fell RM256 to RM4,431 a tonne.

Meanwhile, April 2022 fell RM293 to RM4,247 a tonne and May 2022 dropped RM308 to RM4,104 a tonne.

Weekly volume rose to 283,756 lots from 243,663 lots in last week, while open interest widened to 250,920 contracts from 238,648 contracts previously.

The physical CPO price for December South slid RM70 to RM5,180 a tonne.

The market was closed yesterday for a public holiday in the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan, and will resume operations on Monday, Dec 6. - Bernama