KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 27): The crude palm oil (CPO) futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives closed at an all-time high on Thursday as Indonesia’s restriction on CPO exports continued to lift sentiment, palm oil trader David Ng said.

The benchmark palm oil contract for April 2022 jumped RM115 to RM5,444 a tonne.

He said gains were also influenced by stronger soybean oil performance on the US Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT).

“With export restriction in place, buyers opt for Malaysia palm oil which pushed demand further.

“We locate support at RM5,200 per tonne and resistance at RM5,500 per tonne,” he told Bernama.

Indonesia has imposed a rule starting on Thursday for a mandatory portion of palm oil to be sold domestically at a maximum price of 9,300 rupiah per kg for crude palm oil and 10,300 rupiah per kg for olein, its Trade Minister Muhammad Lutfi said.

The so-called Domestic Market Obligation (DMO) will be applied to all cooking oil exporters and they will be required to sell 20% of their planned export to the domestic market, Lutfi said.

Meanwhile, Singapore-based Palm Oil Analytics owner and co-founder Dr Sathia Varqa said CPO traded on further record high prices driven by Indonesia’s export policy on Thursday.

Varqa said solid gains in soybean oil on the CBOT and firmer crude oil prices also added to the positive sentiment.

At the close, the CPO futures contract for February 2022 gained RM107 to RM5,613 a tonne, March 2022 increased by RM121 to RM5,613 a tonne, April 2022 rose RM115 to RM5,444 a tonne, May 2022 added RM100 to RM5,260 a tonne, June 2022 surged RM89 to RM5,089 a tonne and July 2022 strengthened RM75 to RM4,931a tonne.

Total volume improved to 73,815 lots from 41,163 lots on Wednesday, while open interest widened to 285,416 contracts from 252,652 contracts previously.

The physical CPO price for February South was up by RM90 to RM5,640 a tonne from RM5,550 a tonne on Wednesday.