Malaysian palm oil futures charted a second consecutive day of losses on Tuesday evening despite seeing gains earlier in the day, as a stronger ringgit, which makes the tropical oil more expensive for foreign buyers and aids demand, weighed on prices. The ringgit, the currency palm oil is traded in, was up 0.3 percent at Tuesday's close of trade, not far off one-year highs hit on Thursday.
The benchmark palm oil contract for February delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange slightly fell 0.1 percent to 2,587 ringgit ($630.82) a tonne at the end of the trading day. Traded volumes stood at 31,012 lots of 225 tonnes each in the evening Palm prices hit a low of 2,565 ringgit on Monday afternoon, its weakest level since July 25. "The stronger ringgit affected palm's later performance," said a futures trader from Kuala Lumpur.
Palm prices were up earlier in the day on a weaker ringgit and on a correction after the sharp decline on Monday, another trader said earlier. "But, I don't think gains will sustain as demand is still quite slow," he said. Palm oil exports from Malaysia fell 8.4-8.6 percent during Nov. 1-25 versus the corresponding period last month, according to cargo surveyors Intertek Testing Services and Societe Generale de Surveillance.
In other related edible oils, the December soyabean oil contract on the Chicago Board of Trade rose 0.6 percent, while the January soyabean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange was down 0.5 percent. Dalian's January palm olein contract dropped 0.2 percent. Palm oil is impacted by movements in other edible oils as they compete for a share of the global vegetable oils market.
Palm oil still targets a range of 2,519-2,555 ringgit per tonne, said Reuters' market analyst for commodities and energy technicals Wang Tao.
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