13/6/07 (Business Times)  - CRUDE palm oil (CPO) futures on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Bhd ended broadly higher yesterday on technical rebound after recording two successive days of sharp losses, dealers said.

“Overall trading became volatile. Industry players returned in a big way today to recover from the recent sell-off,” one of the dealers said.

The dealer said the main factor that supported the market was the concern over tight supplies in the near future.

The Malaysian Palm Oil Board reported on Monday that palm oil stocks in the country totalled 1.119 million tonnes in May 2007, down 6.1 per cent from the previous month. This marked the lowest stockpile since May 2004.

In April, palm oil stocks stood at 1.19 million tonnes.

At the close yesterday, the benchmark third-month August contract ended 4.9 per cent or RM113 higher at RM2,433 per tonne.

Of other contracts, June 2007 added RM141 to close at RM2,579 per tonne, July 2007 climbed RM104 to RM2,522 per tonne and September 2007 gained RM130 to RM2,385 per tonne.

Total volume went up to 26,376 lots compared with 25,324 lots on Monday while open interest fell slightly to 101,525 contracts from 101,536 contracts previously.

On the physical market, CPO for June shipments in the southern region was higher at RM2,580 per tonne as against RM2,520 per tonne on Monday.