KUALA LUMPUR, April 7 — Crude palm oil (CPO) futures on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives closed higher today on the back of lower palm oil stocks in the country.
The Malaysian Palm Oil Board’s (MPOB) report released today showed Malaysia’s total palm oil stocks fell 21.08 per cent to 1.67 million tonnes in March from the 2.12 million tonnes recorded the month before.
Mumbai-based Sunvin Group commodity research head Anilkumar Bagani said the lower stocks data was within traders’ expectations.
“This came on the back of stronger exports of 1.49 million tonnes, which surpassed the market assumption of 1.39 to 1.4 million tonnes,” he told Bernama.
Anilkumar said Malaysian palm oil’s end stocks for March were still higher on a year-on-year basis from the 1.474 million tonnes seen at the end of March 2022.
He noted that as Ramadan would be over by the end of the third week of this month, Indonesian palm oil export supplies would be resuming with reduced “domestic market obligation” (DMO) requirements.
“A sharp decline in Malaysian palm oil exports is expected during the April 1-10 period as cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services (ITS) estimated it at 322,985 tonnes, down by 35.6 per cent from Feb 1-10 period.
“This comes despite Indonesia’s reduced export supplies, indicating that the destination demand is very fragile, as a reasonably well stocks position at destination markets has curtailed the palm-oil-buying appetite,” he added.
At the close, spot month April 2023 and May 2023 surged RM107 each to RM4,327 and RM4,061 per tonne, respectively, while June 2023 gained RM43 to RM3,837.
The July 2023 contract added RM10 to RM3,708 per tonne.
August 2023 declined RM23 to RM3,629 per tonne and September 2023 reduced RM30 to RM3,591.
Total volume increased to 77,330 lots from 63,875 lots last Friday, while open interest marginally expanded to 196,349 contracts from 196,321 contracts previously.
The physical CPO price for April South added RM50 to RM4,350 per tonne. — Bernama
