Malaysian palm oil futures eased for a second session on Thursday as weakness in global commodity markets put pressure on vegetable oil prices. The benchmark palm oil contract for November on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange ended 1.87 percent lower at 1,997 ringgit ($482.95)a tonne, its lowest close in more than a week. It had declined 1.2 percent in the previous session.
Earlier in the session on Thursday prices hit a low of 1,983 ringgit, before recovering some of the losses.
Traded volume stood at 55,389 lots of 25 tonnes each, well above the roughly 35,000 lots usually traded per day.
The palm market fell as a continued selloff in global commodities spilled over to the market, a trader in Kuala Lumpur said.
In other vegetable oil markets, the US September soyoil contract was down 0.3 percent in late Asian trade, while the most active soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange fell 0.1 percent.
US crude oil prices fell to almost $40 a barrel, its lowest since the global financial crisis of 2009, as supplies rose in North America and the Middle East, filling stockpiles to record levels.
The ringgit, the currency that benchmark palm is priced in, has declined by about 15 percent so far this year to be Southeast Asia's worst performing currency.
Exports of Malaysian palm oil products during August 1-20 rose 9.3 percent to 991,862 tonnes from 907,574 tonnes shipped during July 1-20, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said on Thursday.
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