KUALA LUMPUR: Crude palm oil (CPO) rose to its highest price in more than three months on the back of bullish sentiments on commodities and strong trading interest.

The contract for February delivery rose RM67 or 2.8% to RM2,486 a tonne, the highest since mid-August. It neared the RM2,500 mark to hit an intra-day high of RM2,495. Stocks of PLANTATION [] companies closed mixed.

KUALA LUMPUR KEPONG BHD [] dropped 52 sen to RM15.12 while IOI CORPORATION BHD [] and IJM Plantation Bhd shed five sen each to RM5.50 and RM2.46 respectively. BATU KAWAN BHD [] rose 12 sen to RM10.22 and KULIM (M) BHD [] added six sen to RM7.48 while SIME DARBY BHD [], Genting Plantations Bhd and FAR EAST HOLDINGS BHD [] closed unchanged at RM8.95, RM6.16 and RM6.29 respectively.

Jim Teh, a palm oil trader at Interband Group, said CPO was mainly boosted by speculative interest as volume was low. He also said that international buyers were reluctant to buy palm oil at this level as it was considered high.

A trader told The Edge Financial Daily that the technicals for CPO have gained momentum as more commodity funds returned to the market.

“There is a mixture of strong support from crude oil, soybean as well as trading on the Dalian Commodity Exchange. However, a lot of it is due to speculative trading. We are seeing more commodity funds pumping money into vegetable oil and CPO has benefited from this,” the trader said, adding that major importers remained intact.

Societe Generale de Surveillance, an independent cargo surveyor, said Malaysia’s palm oil exports rose 16% in the first 20 days of November to 954,652 tonnes month-on-month. Another surveyor, Intertek, said exports increased 15% to 930,133 tonnes.

Bloomberg quoted the Malaysian Palm Oil Board as saying that October exports from Malaysia, the second largest producer, had surged 12% to 1.48 million tonnes, a second month-on-month gain while output and exports from Indonesia were expected to reach records next year supported by demand from the global economic recovery.

Fadhil Hasan, executive director at the Indonesian Palm Oil Association, had said shipments may expand between 7% and 10% from an estimated 15.8 million tonnes this year and output in 2010 may climb to at least 21.5 million tonnes from 20.5 million this year.

Contrary to popular belief, the trader said production was expected to drop some 20% at year-end.

“We expect a pullback tomorrow from profit taking as CPO has had a few straight days of gains now,” the trader said.