By Yi Wei Wong


Shares of Malaysian palm oil companies jumped on Thursday, reversing course from a day earlier.

Sime Darby Plantation Bhd. was recently 4.5% higher, Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd. added 1.6% and IOI Corp. Bhd. rose 2.4%.

Malaysian plantation stocks led a selloff in the Kuala Lumpur Composite Index on Wednesday, tracking a decline of almost 10% in crude palm oil as investors weighed risks of a recession, slower consumer spending and rising palm oil supply. Malaysia's plantation stocks shed 4.6% as a group, Hong Leong Investment Bank analyst Ng Jun Sheng said in a research note.

On Thursday morning, palm oil prices rose 1.9% to 4,585 ringgit ($1,040) a metric ton on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives, supported by news of foreign workers arriving in Malaysia to help ease the labor shortage on plantations, as well as by analyst views that prices of the edible oil had fallen too sharply on risk-off sentiment.

Around 40 Indonesian foreign laborers out of nearly 5,000 approved arrived in Malaysia late Wednesday, marking the first group of Indonesian migrant workers since borders reopened, Ivy Ng of CGS-CIMB said in a note.

CGS-CIMB said it expects prices of the commodity to range between MYR4,000 and MYR5,000 in 2022, supported in the short term by stockpiles of edible oils that remain low due to earlier supply disruptions.


Write to Yi Wei Wong at yiwei.wong@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

06-23-22 0033ET