Palm futures surge to 2-month high

MALAYSIA’S palm oil futures jumped as much as 1.9 per cent to two-month high yesterday as traders took positions ahead of a key industry conference due next week, expecting a flow of bullish news.

One Malaysian trader said the palm oil market is going to continue trading in a tight range before the Bursa Malaysia’s Palm Oil and Laurics Conference starts on Monday.

“People are thinking Bursa Malaysia Palm Oil Conference speakers will say the market will go bullish at levels like RM2,800-3,000 (a tonne),” a trader with a foreign brokerage based in Kuala Lumpur said.
Benchmark May crude palm oil futures on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange closed at RM2,674 per tonne after rising as high as RM2,686 , a level unseen since January 6.

Traded volumes surged to 16,754 lots of 25 tonnes each from the usual 10,000 lots.

Traders are also on the lookout for February palm oil stocks, production and export data due to be released on Wednesday by industry regulator Malaysian Palm Oil Board.

Reuters will issue a poll today ahead of the data release.

Crude oil fell towards US$80 a barrel, weighing on other vegetable oil markets.

The soyoil March contract at the Chicago Board of Trade slipped in Asian hours as expectations of a bumper soybean crop offset rising crude oil prices.