CPO FUTURES END LOWER AMIDST UNCERTAIN MARKET SENTIMENT

By Fatin Umairah Abdul Hamid

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 8 (Bernama) -- The crude palm oil (CPO) futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives closed lower on Wednesday, as market sentiment and fundamentals remained uncertain, said Fastmarkets Palm Oil Analytics senior analyst Sathia Varqa.

He noted that the initial buying momentum at the start of trading faded due to the lack of fresh positive fundamentals to support price increases. This led traders to shift their focus to related vegetable oils for trading direction.

“The imminent release of December supply and demand data, scheduled for Friday, January 10, along with expectations of weak exports in the first ten days of January, kept palm futures in check. However, the persistent sentiment of tight supply in the first quarter prevented sharp price declines,” he told Bernama.

Meanwhile, palm oil dealer David Ng said the CPO price ended lower today due to the outlook for weaker exports in the coming weeks.

“We see support at RM4,250 and resistance at RM4,430 a tonne,” Ng told Bernama.

At the close, the January 2025 and February 2025 contracts dropped RM2 to RM4,711 and RM4,504 per tonne, respectively.

March 2025 slid RM11 to RM4,354 per tonne, April 2025 slipped RM5 to RM4,262 per tonne, May 2025 added RM5 to RM4,202 per tonne, and June 2025 rose RM13 to RM4,168.

The trading volume declined to 78,596 lots from 97,738 lots yesterday, while open interest dropped to 227,006 contracts from 231,390 contracts.

The physical CPO price for January South remained unchanged at RM4,750 per tonne.

-- BERNAMA