Malaysian crude palm oil futures rose on Friday, recovering most of their 3 percent fall from a day earlier, helped by tightness in the physical market, traders said. "In the physical market, we have seen less (palm oil) vehicle movements lately, so the best way for refiners is to buy futures," a trader at a Kuala Lumpur-based commodities brokerage said.
The benchmark May contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange rose 52 ringgit, or 2.7 percent, to 1,972 ringgit ($532) per tonne. Other traded contracts rose between 3 and 71 ringgit. Overall volume was a heavy 18,524 lots of 25 tonnes each, much bigger than normal volume of around 10,000 lots. Malaysian palm oil production declined faster then a drop in exports, taking palm stocks at end February to a 16-month low, data showed on Wednesday.
The drop in stocks helped allay fears over the longer term price outlook after influential analyst Dorab Mistry and James Fry warned at Bursa Malaysias Palm Oil Conference this week that prices could fall to 1,500 ringgit this year on less demand. "Everybody is so bearish from the conference but the market is still trending higher. I think as long as the stocks remain low, the market will remain positive," the Kuala Lumpur-based brokerage trader said.
INDONESIA PALM TRADES In Indonesia, the worlds top palm oil producer, the Jakarta-based state marketing centre said it sold 6,000 tonnes of palm oil at a top price of 7,248 rupiah ($0.605) per kg, up from 7,197 rupiah ($0.60) per kg on Thursday.
Producers in Medan - home to Belawan port, Indonesias main palm oil export port - did not hold a palm oil tender. Meanwhile, refiners in Jakarta offered refined, bleached, deodorised (RBD) palm oil, used as cooking oil, at 7,650 rupiah per kg against 7,800 rupiah per kg on Thursday. In the Malaysian physical market, palm oil for March deliveries was traded at 2,020-2,035 ringgit per tonne in the southern region and at 2,000-2,020 ringgit a tonne in the central region.
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