CPO FUTURES EXTEND GAINS DRIVEN BY STRONGER VEGETABLE OIL MARKET IN CHINA

By Rosemarie Khoo Mohd Sani

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 13 (Bernama) -- Crude palm oil (CPO) futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives closed higher today, extending its gains from last Friday.

Fastmarkets Palm Oil Analytics senior analyst Sathia Varqa said the gains were supported by sharply higher related vegetable oils futures on the Dalian Commodity Exchange, reinforced by the idea of tight supplies resulting from poor weather conditions, and the recent Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) data for December.

“Traders set aside the poor export data for Malaysia for the first 10 days of this month to bet on struggling supply in January after Southern Peninsular Palm Oil Millers' Association (SPPOMA) reported that output in the first 10 days was down by 3.84 per cent compared with the same period in December 2024,” he told Bernama. 

Meanwhile, palm oil trader David Ng said CPO prices rallied above RM4,450 amid stronger soybean oil and crude oil prices.

He also said the expectation of weaker output is also seen as a supporting factor for the market in the near term, with support level at RM4,400 per tonne and resistance at RM4,600 per tonne.

At the close, the January 2025 contract added RM105 to RM4,815 per tonne, February 2025 contract gained RM95 to RM4,656 per tonne, March 2025 contract rose by RM109 to RM4,500 per tonne, April 2025 ticked up RM107 to RM4,392 per tonne, May 2025 put on RM97 to RM4,306 per tonne and the June 2025 contract expanded by RM80 to RM4,247 per tonne.

Trading volume eased to 75,523 lots from 77,607 lots last Friday, while open interest dropped to 221,834 contracts from 229,080 contracts previously.

The physical CPO price for January South rose by RM110 to RM4,870 per tonne.

-- BERNAMA