KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures fell over 1 percent in early trade on Thursday, as a stronger ringgit and overnight falls in soyoil on the Chicago Board of Trade weighed on the market.
Gains in the ringgit, palm's currency of trade, usually makes the tropical oil more expensive for foreign buyers. The ringgit had strengthened 0.4 percent to 3.9880 per dollar by noon.
The benchmark palm oil contract for March delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was down 1.1 percent at 2,594 ringgit ($650.45) a tonne at the midday break.
Trading volumes stood at 15,067 lots of 25 tonnes each at the midday break. "Palm is down mirroring weakness in overnight soyoil and current strength in the ringgit," said a trader from Kuala Lumpur.
Another trader said higher inventories also weighed on the market, which would trade range bound until export data indicated a clearer trend.
Data from cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance showed Malaysian palm oil exports during Jan. 1-10 rose 12.2 percent from a month earlier, while Intertek Testing Services said shipments declined 1.4 percent during the same period.
Inventories at the end of December rose 7 percent on month to a more than two-year high of 2.7 million tonnes, industry regulator Malaysian Palm Oil Board said on Wednesday.
In related oils, the March soybean oil contract on the Chicago Board of Trade dropped 0.7 percent in the previous session, but was up 0.2 percent on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the May soybean oil on the Dalian Commodity Exchange was down 0.2 percent, while the Dalian January palm oil contract declined 0.2 percent.
Palm oil tracks the performance of other edible oils, as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.
The palm oil third-month contract may retest a support at 2,577 ringgit per tonne, said Reuters market analyst for commodities and energy technicals Wang Tao. Palm, soy and crude oil prices as of 0508 GMT
Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume
MY PALM OIL JAN8 2534 -34.00 2534 2557 2
MY PALM OIL FEB8 2594 -28.00 2592 2608 634
MY PALM OIL MAR8 2594 -28.00 2589 2613 7312
CHINA PALM OLEIN MAY8 5330 -10.00 5320 5354 147058
CHINA SOYOIL MAY8 5782 -14.00 5772 5816 151002
CBOT SOY OIL MAR8 33.51 +0.03 33.39 33.54 2500
INDIA PALM OIL JAN8 561.10 -1.10 560.40 561.7 125
INDIA SOYOIL JAN8 743 -1.95 743 743.05 80
NYMEX CRUDE FEB8 63.49 -0.08 63.44 63.62 25883
Palm oil prices in Malaysian ringgit per tonne
CBOT soy oil in U.S. cents per pound
Dalian soy oil and RBD palm olein in Chinese yuan per tonne
India soy oil in Indian rupee per 10 kg
Crude in U.S. dollars per barrel
($1 = 3.9880 ringgit)
($1 = 63.7625 Indian rupees)
($1 = 6.5160 Chinese yuan)
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