CPO futures poised for technical correction next week

KUALA LUMPUR: The crude palm oil (CPO) futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives is likely to trade lower next week on technical correction following continued speculative play, Interband Group of Companies senior palm oil trader Jim Teh said.

However, he said more physical buyers were expected to enter the market when prices go down further moving forward.

"There is no reason for prices to be so high. Everything that goes up will have to come down so the bubble is going to burst at any time,” he told Bernama.

For next week, Teh expects speculative play would influence the CPO prices to hover at between RM4,000 and RM4,500 a tonne.

Meanwhile, Singapore-based Palm Oil Analytics owner and co-founder Dr Sathia Varqa said next week's trading will be centered on March 1-20, 2022 output data from Southern Peninsula Palm Oil Millers' Association and the Malaysian Palm Oil Association (MPOA).

"Palm ended the week sharply lower following an assortment of Indonesia's policy changes. Global palm supply should see significant improvement after Indonesia rescinded the domestic market obligations policy,” he said.

For the week just-ended, CPO futures were mixed, taking cue from the movement of soybean oil on the US Chicago Board of Trade as well as developments on the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

On a Friday-to-Friday basis, April 2022 dropped RM1,414 to RM6,166 per tonne, May 2022 fell RM1,203 to RM5,760 per tonne, and June 2022 declined RM836 to RM5,629 per tonne.

July 2022 shed RM601 to RM5,567 per tonne, August 2022 lost RM448 to RM5,514 per tonne, and September 2022 dipped RM200 to RM5,467 per tonne.

Weekly volume increased to 354,606 lots from 281,959 lots last week while open interest rose to 249,414 contracts from 242,249 contracts previously.

The physical CPO price for March South dropped by RM1,100 to RM6,400 a tonne. - Bernama