KUALA LUMPUR: The crude palm oil (CPO) futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives is likely to trade lower next week on expected profit-taking.

Singapore-based Palm Oil Analytics’ owner and co-founder Dr Sathia Varqa said the switch in the benchmark month from January 2022 to February 2022 would also weigh down on the CPO futures prices.

“The benchmark month will switch on Tuesday next week, and currently it is trading at RM200 lower than January 2022 which may weigh down on overall prices,” he told Bernama.

On a Friday-to-Friday basis, November 2021 added RM86 to RM5,405 a tonne and December 2021 rose RM79 to RM5,187 a tonne.

January 2022 surged RM55 to RM4,935 a tonne, February 2022 advanced RM26 to RM4,737 a tonne, March 2022 was unchanged at RM4,557 a tonne, and April 2022 was down by RM10 to RM4,407 a tonne.

Weekly volume expanded to 358,140 lots from 250,219 lots in the previous trading week, while open interest improved to 258,213 contracts from 243,221 contracts previously.

The physical CPO price for November South was unchanged at RM5,400 a tonne. – Bernama