Malaysian crude palm oil futures closed higher on Friday as the market waited for key export data to be released by cargo surveyors. The benchmark February contract on the Bursar Malaysia Derivatives exchange was up 9 ringgit at 1,764 ringgit a tonne ($483) after trading between 1,743 ringgit and 1,788 ringgit.
"The market in the afternoon was going higher only, non-stop," a Malaysian dealer in Kuala Lumpur said. "Maybe some people guessed that the export numbers for the first 20 days of November are very good," he said.
"They thought the export maybe as good as last month's, that was why somebody, somebody who may have knowledge of these bought it up." Cargo surveyors Interlake Testing Services (ITS) and Society General de Surveillance (SGS) are due to release export numbers for November 1-20 on Monday.
One dealer said the figures were "supposed to be good, as good as last month's". Exports of Malaysian oil palm products for October 1-20 rose 17 percent to 941,070 tonnes from 804,277 tonnes shipped between September 1 and 20, SGS said.
Other traded palm oil contracts were up 4 to 18 ringgits on Friday, but the July contract fell 4 ringgit. Overall volume was 28,010 lots of 25 tonnes each against on Thursday's 23,172 lots of 25 tonnes each. "Trade was very active. There's a lot of buying and also we saw a lot of selling, very heavy buying and heavy selling, both ways," a dealer said.
Malaysian dealers said the market should move in a range of 1,750 ringgit and 1,788 ringgit on Monday. "The market on Monday will also very much depend on how Chicago soyaoil behaves, and if Chicago is down, then we will start down," the first dealer said. "And after initial response from Chicago soyaoil, then whatever our export numbers are, the market will start trading next prices," he said.
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