Palm oil trader David Ng said ongoing concerns over lower-than-expected output has also influenced CPO prices.

“However, recent weakness in demand continues to add pressure on the price rally,” he told Bernama.

Meanwhile, Singapore-based Palm Oil Analytics’ owner and co-founder Sathia Varqa said CPO futures traded higher today supported by external factors of higher crude oil prices and the strong performance of US equities ahead of the US labour market report.

At the close, the CPO futures contract for September 2021 added RM72 to RM4,550 a tonne, October 2021 gained RM71 to RM4,429 a tonne, November 2021 rose RM69 to RM4,310 and December 2021 increased RM58 to RM4,211 a tonne.

Meanwhile January 2022 improved by RM54 to RM4,125 a tonne and February 2022 was up RM53 to RM4,042 a tonne.

Total volume increased to 68,180 lots from Thursday’s 53,780 lots while open interest was up to 256,759 contracts from 245,368 contracts previously.

The physical CPO price for September South improved by RM10 to RM4,580 a tonne from RM4,570 a tonne on Thursday.