Palm hits near 4-week low on weaker related oils

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures hit their lowest in nearly four weeks on Tuesday, weighed down by overnight losses in the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) soyoil and weakness in related oils on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange.

The benchmark palm oil contract for January delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was down 0.5 percent at 2,748 ringgit ($656.16) a tonne at the midday break, heading for a fourth straight session of declines.

Earlier in the session, it fell as much as 0.8 percent to 2,738 ringgit, its lowest since Oct. 20.

Traded volumes stood at 12,864 lots of 25 tonnes each at noon.

Palm oil is impacted by movements in other edible oils as they compete for a share of the global vegetable oils market.

The December soybean oil contract on the CBOT was up 0.2 percent after posting its biggest single-day drop in nearly two months in the previous session.

The January soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange was down 0.8 percent, while the January palm olein contract fell 1.3 percent.

A likely slowdown in exports in the first half of November could dampen the market further, said a futures trader from Kuala Lumpur.

Appetite for palm oil usually slows towards the end of the year in markets with winter seasons such as China and Europe, as the tropical oil solidifies in cold temperatures.

Cargo surveyors Intertek Testing Services and Societe Generale de Surveillance are scheduled to release Nov. 1-15 exports data after 0300 GMT on Wednesday.