KUALA LUMPUR (May 6): The crude palm oil (CPO) futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives (BMD) closed higher today, boosted by the stronger soybean oil performance on the US Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT).
Palm oil trader David Ng said traders also anticipated lower stocks in the coming weeks, which also sent prices higher today.
“The lower output and strong demand for the commodity helped to lift sentiment higher,” he told Bernama.
Yesterday, according to Bloomberg poll data estimates, the CPO stocks for April 2021 rose 3.4% to 1.5 million tonnes, from 1.45 million tonnes in March 2021.
“The figure is not much given that we are in seasonally higher production and market players are expecting the stocks to increase by more than 5%,” he added.
At the close, CPO futures contract for May 2021 increased RM120 to RM4,718 per tonne, June 2021 added RM148 to RM4,459 per tonne, July 2021 rose RM171 to RM4,215 per tonne, and August 2021 climbed RM183 to RM4,033 per tonne.
Total volume surged to 66,152 lots from 39,651 lots on Wednesday, while open interest edged up to 283,149 contracts from 246,901 contracts previously.
The physical CPO price for May South added RM100 to RM4,710 per tonne.
