Malaysian crude palm oil futures ended down on Monday due to technical selling, dealers said. In Kuala Lumpur, the benchmark third-month May crude palm oil contract on Bursar Malaysia Derivatives ended down 14 ringgit at 1,474 ringgit a tonne ($398.3), after trading as high as 1,489 ringgit.
"The market fell today on further liquidation and technical selling," said one Malaysian dealer in Kuala Lumpur. Other traded months settled down 6 and 14 ringgit with overall volume modest at 5,098 lots of 25 tonnes.
"I think the market will try to find a support level temporarily, but it's hard to say where. It looks like it's going to play a very big range tomorrow and the day after," said another dealer. Dealers pegged the new resistance level at 1,500 ringgit and support at 1,450 ringgit.
A slew of market-sensitive data is due on Friday, with cargo surveyors scheduled to release export estimates for March 1-10, as well as government official supply/demand figures for February.
"It is forecast at the moment. But on Thursday, more or less, we will know where the market is going to go," said one dealer.