Crude palm oil (CPO) futures on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives are expected to continue their uptrend next week given the bullish outlook for the commodity.
Jim Teh, senior palm oil trader, Interband Group of Companies, said the CPO prices were likely to trade between RM3,300 and RM3,400 per tonne.
“Currently, we manage to sell at RM3,500 per tonne with 2.1 million tonnes in stock, compared to 2008, where we only manage to sell RM1,500 per tonne with two million in stock,” he said.
He said the current price was above the benchmark and hoped that speculators would remain in the market to keep it up.
Teh said the market would remain positive despite external factors like Europe and India which were expected to go into recession.
However, he said, the market was expected to cautious as investors await more fresh leads.
Throughout the week just-ended, the market was mixed following better demand and traders booking profit.
The week started with CPO price closing at its highest level in more than a year on traders’ fears about a tightening supply of edible oil.
The market saw profit-taking on Tuesday before renewed strong demand for commodities futures took place on Wednesday.
For the last two days this week, the market were influenced by speculative buying interest.
Compared to last week, April 2012 rose RM159 to end the week at RM3,639 per tonne, May 2012 added RM169 to RM3,613 per tonne, June 2012 went up RM171 to RM3,604 per tonne while July 2012 increased RM166 to RM3,577 per tonne.
The week’s turnover declined to 18,810 lots from 21,018 lots recorded last week while open interest went down to 120,728 contracts from 125,871 contracts.
On the physical market, April South was higher at RM3,570 per tonne compared with RM3,470 per tonne last Friday. — Bernama
Source: Business Times
