Crude palm oil (CPO) futures prices on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives closed lower yesterday with market players a bit cautious amid a bullish export data released yesterday, dealers said.

They said trading was thin as the export data failed to ease concerns about growing stockpiles during the month.

Intertek Testing Services said export for Oct 1-25 rose by 16 per cent to 1,117,729 tonnes from 963,814 tonnes in same period last month.

Societe Generale de Surveillance said export during the period surged 6.8 per cent to 1,113,415 tonnes from the 1,042,282 tonnes previously.

At the close, November 2009 and December 2009 contracts declined RM14 each to settle at RM2,218 and RM2,218 a tonne respectively.

January 2010 dipped RM20 to RM2,218 a tonne and February 2010 dropped RM25 to RM2,214. Turnover fell sharply to 11,963 lots from 16,202 last Friday.

Open interest, however, increased to 921,438 contracts from 91,707 previously. On the physical market, October South declined by RM20 to RM2,220 a tonne. Source : Business Times