Palm oil follows futures lower on ringgit, technicals

ROTTERDAM: Palm oil on the European vegetable oils market eased on Wednesday, tracking losses in Malaysian palm oil futures on the back of a stronger ringgit and technical selling.

"Lower Malaysian palm oil exports for the first 20 days of December also weighed, although one could read some bullishness in the data as the drop was substantially smaller than during the first 10 days of this month," one broker said.

Asking prices for palm oil were between $2.50 and $7.50 a tonne down after Malaysian palm oil futures closed between 18 and 22 ringgit per tonne lower. A stronger ringgit could hamper export demand as it makes palm oil more expensive for foreign buyers.

At 1830 GMT, CBOT soyoil futures were between 0.17 and 0.32 cents per lb down on technical selling and tracking slightly lower Chicago soybeans.

EU rapeoil was offered between seven and 12 euros per tonne lower after the European Commission approved Canadian canola for use in producing biodiesel in the European Union under its tougher environmental standard. Lower rapeseed futures also weighed as did a weaker dollar.

Coconut oil was offered $15 a tonne higher on the back of underlying buying interest and due to the weaker dollar, which supports dollar-priced products. Palmkernel oil eased by between $10 and $25 a tonne, tracking weaker palm oil and because of slack demand.