KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 11 — The crude palm oil (CPO) futures contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives closed at a two-year high at RM2,655 per tonne today, analysts said.

A trader, David Ng, said this was backed by the stronger-than-expected crop data after the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) reported an overall decrease in the palm oil stock level to 2.34 million tonnes versus market estimates of 2.54 million tonnes.

"Besides, cargo surveyor AmSpec, which reported an increase of 12.8 per cent or 45,283 tonnes in exports for the first 10 days from Nov 1-10 compared with the same period last month, is also supporting the price to rally.

"We locate support at RM2,580 per tonne and resistance at RM2,700 per tonne,” he told Bernama.

On the same note, Singapore-based Palm Oil Analytics owner and co-founder Dr Sathia Varqa said exports are widely predicted to surge between 17.50 per cent to 10.63 per cent over survey estimates and cargo data.

"Shipments to the African continent rising by three-fold to the highest in the year and increases to the European Union and Middle East are likely to lift overall overseas demand in October,” he said.

MPOB today reported that Malaysia’s total palm oil stocks eased 4.1 per cent to 2.348 million tonnes in October 2019 from 2.448 million tonnes recorded in the previous month.

It said CPO stocks decreased by 2.19 per cent to 1.323 million tonnes in October from 1.353 million tonnes in September.

At the close, the CPO futures contract for November 2019, December 2019 and January 2020 went up RM54 each to RM2,580 per tonne, RM2,578 per tonne and RM2,627 per tonne respectively.

Meanwhile, February 2020 was higher by RM53 at RM2,653 per tonne.

Volume decreased to 63,095 lots from 69,906 lots last Friday, while open interest edged lower to 266,102 contracts from 285,101 contracts previously.

On the physical market, November South was RM40 better at RM2,520 per tonne. — Bernama