JAKARTA: Malaysian crude palm oil futures rose 3.8 per cent on yesterday, their biggest daily rise in percentage terms in five weeks, ending a five-day losing streak as investors covered their short positions, traders said.

“When the price crossed RM2,200, it must have triggered buying by some people” on expectations of a rally, said a trader at a Kuala Lumpur-based brokerage.

The benchmark November contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivative Exchange settled up RM80 at RM2,210 a tonne. It was the biggest daily gain in percentage terms since August 3.

Overall volume was 12,942 lots of 25 tonnes each. Traders said a rally in rival soybean prices and crude oil also provided some support to the rebound.

The oil price rose above 69 a barrel yesterday ahead of an OPEC meeting, which analysts said would see more target compliance rhetoric but no change in output limits.

Palm lost 10.1 per cent in the previous five sessions, pressured by cargo surveyors’ estimates of a drop in August palm exports to about 1.3 million tonnes, from 1.4 million in July, and news of improved rainfall in palm-growing areas that raised the prospect of higher output.

Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) is due to announce August palm oil exports, production and closing stocks on tomorrow.

A Reuters poll showed on yesterday that Malaysian palm oil stocks in August climbed 7.3 per cent to a six-month high as exports returned to normal after sharply rising on festival-related demand a month earlier. Source : Business Times

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