By Danni Haizal Danial Donald and Nur Athirah Mohd Shaharuddin

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 1 (Bernama) -- The crude palm oil (CPO) futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives ended lower as a stronger ringgit continued to weigh on palm oil prices, a dealer said.

Palm oil trader David Ng said market sentiment was also influenced by the expectation of stronger output in the coming weeks.

“We see support at RM3,800 a tonne and resistance at RM4,000 a tonne,” he told Bernama.

Meanwhile, Fastmarkets senior analyst Sathia Varqa said CPO futures fell to the lowest in five weeks, magnifying yesterday’s losses and erasing over RM30 to RM70 across the board.

He said a relentless rise in the ringgit over the US dollar in recent days weighed on the CPO futures prices.

“A stronger local currency makes the ringgit-denominated tropical oil more expensive to holders of the dollar, limiting export demand, especially after witnessing a strong (export) performance in July,” he said.

At the close, the spot month August 2024 contract fell by RM40 to RM3,988 a tonne, September 2024 slipped RM22 to RM3,926 a tonne, and October 2024 shed RM38 to RM3,870 a tonne.

The November 2024 contract slid RM51 to RM3,837 a tonne, December 2024 dipped RM56 to RM3,823 a tonne, and January 2025 declined RM64 to RM3,816 a tonne.

Total volume increased to 123,789 lots from Wednesday’s 64,423 lots, while open interest decreased to 218,898 contracts from 221,064 contracts previously.

The physical CPO price for August South fell by RM30 to RM4,030 per tonne.

-- BERNAMA