Crude palm oil (CPO) futures contracts closed mostly unchanged yesterday as the market entered a consolidation mode, dealers said.

The exception was the January contract month which rose 43.7 per cent or RM1,115 to RM3,665 per tonne on what a dealer considered as market manipulation.

January was the only contract month which breached the RM3,000 per tonne level while the rest ranged between RM2,490 and RM2,565 per tonne.

“It is time for the Securities Commission to check the contracts to identify the buyers and sellers,” said Interband Group’s senior trader Jim Teh.

“The syndicates will go to other commodities. They are not foreigners but are mostly local players who set up offices in the US,” he said.

Teh said the price movement of for January indicated speculation, adding that the volume did not justify the huge jump in price.

A total of 1,935 contracts for January were traded yesterday, the third highest after the benchmark month of February with 9,050 contracts and March with 2,691 contracts, he said.

According to Teh, the reasonable prices for CPO is around RM2,200 per tonne and at that level, producers could already make 100 per cent profit.

At close, spot month December 2009 was unchanged at RM2,490 per tonne while January 2010 added RM1,115 to RM3,665 per tonne.

February 2010 was flat at RM2,562 per tonne and March 2010 was unchanged at RM2,557 per tonne.

Total volume declined to 14,729 lots from 22,897 lots last Friday while open interest rose to 91,399 contracts from 90,022 contracts previously.

On the physical market, December South was unchanged at RM2,500 per tonne. Source : Business Times

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