KUALA LUMPUR: The local crude palm oil (CPO) futures market is expected to remain range-bound with a bearish bias next week given the weakening demand.
Palm oil trader David Ng said the commodity is expected to trade between RM3,300 and RM3,800 per tonne.
Mumbai-based Sunvin Group commodity research head Anilkumar Bagani said palm oil was likely to trade in a wider range of RM3,500 to RM3,900.
He said the CPO futures were seen trading lower on profit-taking ahead of the long holidays as there had not been much market-moving data.
Anilkumar noted that the weakness in vegetable oil contracts in markets such as the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) and Dalian Commodity Exchange had set a weaker tone in BMD CPO futures.
"Due to BMD’s closure for the long holiday period, the market will have to adjust with the movements happening in the global vegetable oil markets during the period,” he said.
For the week just ended, the CPO futures were traded mixed, tracking the lower local stocks level due to higher consumption, as well as the CBOT soybean oil futures. There were also profit-taking activities ahead of the long holiday weekend.
On a weekly basis, April 2023 rose RM199 to RM4,100 per tonne, May 2023 increased RM164 to RM3,911 per tonne, and June 2023 increased RM139 to RM3,702 per tonne.
The July 2023 contract month rose RM132 to RM3,566 per tonne, August 2023 improved RM139 to RM3,503 per tonne and September 2023 strengthened RM148 to RM3,480 per tonne.
Total weekly volume fell to 275,374 lots from 387,277 lots, while open interest was higher at 206,956 contracts from 204,264 contracts on Friday last week.
The physical CPO price for April South was RM30 lower at RM4,250 per tonne. - Bernama
