The third-month benchmark CPO futures contract for May 2020 delivery declined by RM82 or 3.48% to close at RM2,277 per tonne from RM2,359 yesterday – the weakest level since Oct 17, 2019 when the benchmark contract for January 2020 finished at RM2,259 per tonne.
Singapore-based Palm Oil Analytics’ owner and co-founder Dr Sathia Varqa said the accelerating number of Covid-19 cases in Europe and the United States saw the governments taking drastic measures to contain the spread of the virus.
“The measures, however, have set the alarm bells ringing and triggered a global rout on the equity, commodities and foreign exchange markets. And the palm oil market was not spared,” he told Bernama.
At the close, the CPO futures contract for March 2020 and April 2020 lost RM68 each to RM2,302 and RM2,316 per tonne, respectively, May 2020 erased RM82 to RM2,277 per tonne and June 2020 was RM85 lower at RM2,271 per tonne.
Volume, however, jumped to 85,713 lots from 53,235 lots on Wednesday, and open interest widened to 319,185 contracts from 291,570 contracts yesterday.
On the physical market, March South was unchanged at RM2,400 per tonne. – March 13, 2020, Bernama