KUALA LUMPUR: The crude palm oil (CPO) futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives is expected to trade with a bullish bias this week, driven by potential bargain-buying activity after the recent selldown, a dealer says.
Palm oil trader David Ng said expectation of weaker production may lift sentiment in the market.
“This would happen as we are entering into a seasonally lower-production period for palm oil. We expect prices to trend between RM4,600 and RM4,900 per tonne this week,” he told Bernama.
Meanwhile, Interband Group of Companies senior palm oil trader Jim Teh said the CPO futures contract is expected to trade lower in the coming week due to profit-taking activity following recent rallies.
He said physical demand for CPO would come from India, China, Pakistan, Middle Eastern countries, the United States and Europe.
“We expect prices to range between RM4,000 and RM4,200 per tonne this week,” Teh said.
On a Friday-to-Friday basis, the new spot-month December 2024 contract decreased by RM329 to RM4,790 per tonne, January 2025 dropped by RM374 to RM4,714 per tonne, and February 2025 shrank by RM411 to RM4,642 per tonne.
Meanwhile, the March 2025 contract lost RM405 to RM4,547 per tonne and April 2025 retreated RM372 to RM4,458 per tonne.
The new May 2025 contract stood at RM4,373 a tonne.
Total weekly volume decreased to 532,086 lots from 624,489 lots in the preceding week, while open interest fell to 239,910 contracts from 253,114 contracts a week earlier.
The physical CPO price for December South stood at RM4,950 per tonne.
