KUALA LUMPUR: The crude palm oil (CPO) futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives is expected to trade with an upward bias next week, a dealer said.

       However, the CPO market will witness profit-taking activities due to the recent price rally, palm oil trader David Ng told Bernama.

       Hence, he projected the commodity would trade between RM5,500 and RM5,750 per tonne next week.

       Meanwhile, Interband Group of Companies senior palm oil trader Jim Teh said the CPO futures contract was expected to trade in a cautious mode as traders returned from the Lunar New Year holidays.

       He said CPO prices would likely hover between RM5,200 and RM5,300 per tonne.

       CPO was traded for only three days during this holiday-shortened week, as Bursa Malaysia and its subsidiaries were closed from Feb 1 to Feb 2 for the Chinese New Year celebrations.

       For the week, CPO futures were mostly lower mainly due to profit-taking activities and pressure following weak exports.

       On a Friday-to-Friday basis, February 2022 fell RM24 to RM5,779 a tonne, March 2022 dropped RM41 to RM5,749 a tonne, and April 2022 eased RM11 to RM5,617 a tonne.

       Meanwhile, May 2022 and June 2022 added RM2 to RM5,443 a tonne and RM5,268 a tonne, respectively, and July 2022 inched up RM1 to RM5,107 a tonne.

       Weekly volume shrank to 109,885 lots from 324,049 lots last week, while open interest narrowed to 254,448 contracts from 281,952 contracts previously.

       The physical CPO price for February South rose RM50 to RM5,850 a tonne. - Bernama