Malaysian palm oil futures fell on Friday, in line for their sixth decline in seven sessions, weighed down by a stronger ringgit and expectations of rising production. Gains in the ringgit, palm's currency of trade, usually make the edible oil more expensive for foreign buyers. The ringgit rose to its highest in about a year at 4.1580 per dollar on Friday. It was last up 0.4 percent at 4.1600 against the dollar.
The benchmark palm oil contract for February delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was down 0.9 percent at 2,714 ringgit per tonne. Palm was also down 3 percent so far this week, and set for a third straight week of falls as well as its sharpest weekly decline in two months.
Traded volume stood at 37,984 lots of 25 tonnes each. While palm oil production is seen seasonally falling towards the end of the year after a likely peak in October, the current rains could contribute to better-than-expected productivity, said the trader. In other related edible oils, the December soyabean oil contract on the Chicago Board of Trade rose 0.35 percent, while the January soyabean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange was down 0.4 percent. The January palm olein contract fell 0.15 percent.
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