CPO FUTURES EXTENDS GAINS INTO ANOTHER DAY FOLLOWING OIL RALLY

By Danni Haizal Danial Donald

KUALA LUMPUR, March 12 (Bernama) -- Crude palm oil (CPO) futures on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives ended higher on Thursday, extending its gains for another day amid a rally in crude oil prices.

Iceberg X Sdn Bhd proprietary trader David Ng said higher crude oil prices strengthened the competitiveness of vegetable oils, particularly palm oil in biodiesel production, which in turn lifted market sentiment.

At the time of writing, Brent crude oil rose 7.03 per cent to US$98.45 per barrel.

“Hence, we see prices supported above RM4,500 per tonne and resistance at RM4,650 per tonne,” he told Bernama.

Meanwhile, Mumbai-based Sunvin Group Commodity commodity research head Anilkumar Bagani said the positive CPO performance was tracking the bullish momentum of soybean oil futures on the Chicago Board of Trade.

He said the resumption of bullish trend in energy prices and fresh talks of viability of Indonesia’s B50 biodiesel mandate have also helped CPO to firm up.

“However, the continued absence of destination markets and a surprisingly higher palm oil production growth for the first 10 days of March 2026, despite the Ramadan season, is seen capping the pace of the gains in CPO futures,” he added.

At the close, the March, April and August 2026 contracts gained RM40 each to RM4,425, RM4,511 and RM4,480 per tonne, respectively. 

The May 2026 contract rose RM42 to RM4,541 per tonne, while the June and July 2026 contracts both added RM43 to RM4,536 and RM4,514 per tonne, respectively.

Trading volume grew to 137,656 lots from 94,388 on Wednesday, while open interest widened to 229,441 contracts from 224,565 contracts previously.

The physical CPO price for March South increased by RM60 to RM4,500 per tonne.

-- BERNAMA