03/03/2022 (The Edge Markets), Kuala Lumpur -  The crude palm oil (CPO) futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives rebounded to end higher on Thursday on expectation of increasing demand on the back of the Russia-Ukraine crisis, dealers said.

Singapore-based Palm Oil Analytics owner and co-founder Dr Sathia Varqa said CPO prices rose sharply and quickly in the last six days on the prospect of higher palm exports substituting sunflower oil supply loss from the Black Sea.

"Apart from this story, there is little else to lift palm prices so high," he told Bernama.

Palm oil trader David Ng said CPO prices were tracking gains in bean oil on benchmark markets as well as higher energy prices.

Soyoil prices on the  Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) rose 1.3% while Dalian's most-active soyoil contract rose 1.3%.

Palm oil is affected by price movements in related oils as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.

“We locate support at RM6,300 a tonne and resistance at RM7,000 a tonne,” he added.

At the close on Thursday, the CPO futures contract for the spot month March 2022 fell RM371 to RM7,450 a tonne, April 2022 gained RM57 to RM7,256 a tonne, and May 2022 rose RM148 to RM6,808 a tonne.

Meanwhile, June 2022 was RM232 higher at RM6,477 a tonne, July 2022 advanced RM257 to RM6,189 a tonne, and August 2022 increased RM309 to RM6,029 a tonne.

Total volume fell to 72,511 lots from Wednesday’s close of 112,858 lots while open interest narrowed to 250,753 contracts from 296,590 contracts previously.

The physical CPO price for March dropped RM350 to RM7,550 a tonne.