CPO futures to trade range-bound next week

KUALA LUMPUR: The crude palm oil (CPO) futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives is expected to trade in range-bound mode next week as market players lack movement catalysts ahead of the new year 2022.

Palm oil trader David Ng said the traders lack fresh leads, mainly on production and export data for January 2022.

"Basically market players lack any news catalyst that can drive CPO prices higher,” he told Bernama.

Hence, he said the futures contract is expected to trade between RM4,500 and RM4,800 per tonne.

Meanwhile Singapore-based Palm Oil Analytics owner and co-founder Dr Sathia Varqa said next week’s trading will be based on Malaysian Palm Oil Association (MPOA) palm oil industry performance data for December 2021.

"Traders would also adopt a cautious stance following the supply and demand estimate from pollsters ahead of Malaysian Palm Oil Board data on Jan 10, 2022,” he said.

For the week just ended, Malaysian CPO futures finished mostly lower, tracking weaker soybean oil performance on the Chicago Board of Trade and profit-taking activities.

On a Friday-to-Friday basis, January 2022 increased RM32 to RM5,159 a tonne, February 2022 gained RM93 to RM4,958 a tonne, March 2022 improved RM48 to RM4,697 a tonne and April 2022 was higher by RM20 at RM4,503 a tonne.

Meanwhile, May 2022 rose RM5 to RM4,363 a tonne and June 2022 declined RM9 to RM4,256 a tonne.

Weekly volume fell to 199,081 lots from 231,382 lots last week, while open interest slipped to 241,002 contracts from 260,550 contracts previously.

The physical CPO price for January South jumped RM80 to RM5,180 a tonne. - Bernama