19.05.2021 (www.theedgemarkets.com) - KUALA LUMPUR (May 19): The crude palm oil (CPO) futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives erased Tuesday’s gains to end lower today, tracking the downtrend in soybean oil futures on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT).

Palm oil trader David Ng said the losses were coupled with weaker sentiment over the exports pace in coming weeks as higher prices would deter buying interest.

“We locate support at RM4,280 per tonne and resistance at RM4,400 per tonne,” he told Bernama.

Meanwhile, Singapore-based Palm Oil Analytics’ owner and co-founder Dr Sathia Varqa said Malaysia’s May 1-20 exports are expected to be sustained, rising at 16 to 18% versus April 1-20, but the CPO market continued to cool down today.

“Yesterday’s surge in prices also prompted profit-taking activities,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Malaysian Palm Oil Board reported that the CPO price hit RM4,773.50 per tonne today, surpassing the all-time previous peak of RM4,758.50 per tonne recorded on May 7, 2021.

It is the commodity’s eleventh time recording the highest price this year, and among the factors contributing to that include the uptrend in the soybean oil price.

At the close, the CPO futures contract for June 2021 declined RM160 to RM4,669 per tonne, July 2021 erased RM164 to RM4,494 per tonne, August 2021 weakened RM155 to RM4,302 per tonne, and September 2021 was RM132 weaker at RM4,146 per tonne.

Total volume increased to 80,062 lots from 76,138 lots on Tuesday, while open interest edged up to 270,768 contracts from 263,913 contracts previously.

The physical CPO price for May South gave up RM180 to RM4,670 per tonne.

https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/cpo-futures-end-lower-tracking-downtrend-soybean-oil-futures#