Crude palm oil (CPO) futures on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives are expected
to trend higher next week on supply concerns and other external factors,
traders said.
Interband Group of Companies senior trader, Jim Teh, said CPO
prices are expected to be traded between RM3,400 and RM3,600 next week.
Currently the price was above industry’s expectation (RM3,000 per tonne), he said.
Meanwhile, he said, CPO production was expected to fall in the
first six months of the year on concerns the fresh fruit bunches
production would fall by about 25 per cent.
At the same time, he said, the unrest in West Asia has caused crude oil
price to spiral upwards which in turn helped to propel commodities
prices.
The market week started the week on a bearish note with prices down
by over RM100 in the middle the week before recouping their losses at
the close.
The week also saw the market registering its biggest all-time daily volume of 48,704 on Thursday.
Cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance said exports of
Malaysian palm oil products for Feb 1-25 fell by six per cent to 957,224
tonnes from 1,017,913 tonnes during the same period last month.
On a weekly basis, March 2011 declined RM190 to close at RM3,565,
April 2011 fell RM192 to RM3,542, May 2011 eased by RM168 to RM3,515 and
June 2011 declined by RM135 to RM3,495.
Total turnover increased to 164,998 lots from the 113,112 lots last
week while open interests fell to 107,659 contracts from 108,046
contracts previously.
On the physical market, March South traded at RM3,630 per tonne on Friday. — Bernama
