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Bursa Malaysia Derivatives' (BMD) crude palm oil futures contract set a new record as of the close of mid-day trading yesterday, with a total of 4,072,384 contracts traded so far this year, surpassing the previous record of 4,064,361 contracts traded for the whole of 2010. This is the highest ever number of contracts traded annually since FCPO contracts started trading in 1980.
Dato’ Tajuddin Atan, Chief Executive Officer of Bursa Malaysia and Chairman of BMD said, “This record-breaking achievement strengthens the position of our FCPO contracts as the global pricing benchmark for palm oil and palm oil-based products. The uncertainty in global financial markets has resulted in a shift of funds from equities to other asset classes and this trend is expected to continue over the next few months.
“Achieving this milestone so close to the first-year anniversary of our migration onto the CME Globex® trading platform is a feat worth highlighting. We are proud that our internationalisation approach via the strategic collaboration with CME Group has proven to be successful.”
Open interest for FCPO contracts on BMD has risen steadily on the back of an even mix of players in the futures market. The last time open interest hit an all-time high was on 15 July 2011, with 136,602 contracts.
In a move to provide greater visibility and accessibility to international traders, BMD migrated its products onto the CME Globex® electronic trading platform on 20 September 2010 following its collaboration with the CME Group in 2009 in which the operator of the world’s largest derivatives exchange acquired a 25% stake in BMD.
