KUALA LUMPUR: The crude palm oil (CPO) futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives is expected to trade in a range-bound mode next week.

       Palm oil trader David Ng told Bernama that the CPO futures prices were expected to trade between RM5,400 a tonne and RM5,750 a tonne.

       Another dealer said the higher crude oil prices would also likely boost CPO prices further while encouraging the conversion of CPO into raw material to produce biofuel.

       He said, despite the steep increase in CPO prices, demand is still high as the commodity is cheaper compared with other edible oils, thus remains attractive to buyers.

       For the week just-ended, the CPO futures were mostly lower mainly due to profit-taking activities and weaker demand.

       On a Friday-to-Friday basis, February 2022 rose RM51 to RM5,830 a tonne, March 2022 lost RM40 to RM5,709 a tonne, and April 2022 eased RM37 to RM5,580 a tonne.

       Meanwhile, May 2022 dropped RM26 to RM5,417 a tonne, June 2022 shed RM193 to RM5,300 a tonne, while July 2022 gained RM16 to RM5,091 a tonne.

       Weekly volume increased to 446,246 lots from 109,885 lots last week, while open interest expanded to 272,630 contracts from 254,448 contracts previously.

       The physical CPO price for February South rose RM10 to RM5,860 a tonne. - Bernama