Crude Palm Oil Rises to 1-Month High; Firm Exports Support

Crude palm oil futures on Malaysia’s derivatives exchange rose to a one-month high Thursday, tracking soyoil gains on the DCE and CBOT and as some investors covered short positions ahead of a long weekend in the region.

The benchmark January contract at Bursa Malaysia Derivatives ended 1% higher at 2,603 ringgit a metric ton after rising as much as 1.4% to MYR2,615/ton, the highest level since Sept. 28. Malaysian markets will be closed Friday for the Id al-Adha holiday.
"Bullish traders ended the holiday-shortened week in style after encouraging export data for the Oct. 1-25 period," a Kuala Lumpur-based trading executive said. "Some investors went long and are comfortable maintaining their positions on improved global risk appetite and weather worries in key oil palm growing areas [in Malaysia]."
Palm oil is up 4.1% this week and could rise further next week, as traders expect firm exports and–potentially–a disruption to harvesting due to monsoon rainfall in important growing regions of Malaysia, which would prevent further stockpile builds.
Cargo surveyor Intertek Agri Services said Malaysia exported 1.30 million metric tons of palm oil in the Oct. 1-25 period, up 11% from the same period a month earlier. Another surveyor, SGS (Malaysia) Bhd., said shipments rose 9.4% to 1.28 million tons.
In the cash market, refined palm olein for November was offered at $852.50/ton while cash CPO for prompt shipment was offered at MYR2,460/ton.
Open interest on the BMD was 160,028 lots, versus 140,311 lots Wednesday. One lot is equivalent to 25 tons.
A total of 36,498 lots of CPO were traded versus 20,953 lots Wednesday.

Ending BMD Crude Palm Oil (CPO) futures prices in MYR/ton: 

Month   Close  Previous  Change   High    Low
Nov'12  2,500     2,468     +32  2,500  2,445
Dec'12  2,561     2,539     +22  2,570  2,505
Jan'13  2,603     2,578     +25  2,615  2,543
Feb'13  2,640     2,614     +26  2,649  2,582 

Write to Shie-Lynn Lim at shie-lynn.lim@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 25, 2012 07:37 ET (11:37 GMT)
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