Malaysian palm oil futures edged up slightly on Tuesday, recovering from a one-week low hit earlier in the day, supported by gains in US soyaoil and a weaker ringgit. The benchmark palm oil contract for October delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was up 0.1 percent at 2,194 ringgit a tonne at the end of the trading day. It earlier hit 2,176 ringgit, its lowest since July 25.
Palm oil has declined 5.7 percent this month, its sharpest monthly drop since November. Trading volume stood at 52,227 lots of 25 tonnes each on Tuesday evening. "The market was supported by soyaoil on the Chicago Board of Trade and then the ringgit turned lower," said a Kuala Lumpur based trader, adding that technical buying also supported the market.
A weaker ringgit, the currency palm is traded in, typically supports prices by making it cheaper for foreign buyers. The ringgit weakened 0.2 percent to 4.0630 to the dollar on Tuesday evening. Palm prices had fallen earlier, tracking overnight losses in US soyaoil and on weak export data from a cargo surveyor.
Palm oil exports in July fell 3.9 percent on a monthly basis, inspection company AmSpec Agri Malaysia reported on Tuesday. In other related oils, the Chicago December soyabean oil contract declined 0.6 percent on Monday, but was up 0.7 percent on Tuesday.
The September soyabean oil contract on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange rose 0.6 percent and the Dalian September palm oil contract fell 0.1 percent. Palm oil prices are influenced by the performance of other edible oils as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.
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