Palm rises on Dalian strength, weaker ringgit; eyes second weekly gain

JAKARTA: Malaysian palm oil futures rose on Friday after a two-session slide, and were on track for a second straight weekly gain, supported by strength in Dalian and Chicago vegetable oils.

The benchmark palm oil contract for February delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange rose 36 ringgit, or 0.88%, to 4,141 ringgit ($1,007.54) a metric ton by the midday break.

The contract has risen 0.65% so far this week.

“Bursa Malaysia crude palm oil futures were seen trading higher today on bargain buying following a bullish recovery in Dalian palm olein futures and expectation of a resumption in Indian palm oil buying after washouts of some Soy oil shipments,” said Anilkumar Bagani, commodity research head at Sunvin Group, a Mumbai-based brokerage. Dalian’s most-active soyoil contract gained 0.34%, while its palm oil contract rose 0.78.

Soyoil prices on the Chicago Board of Trade climbed 0.25%.

Palm oil tracks price movements of rival edible oils as it competes for a share of the global vegetable oils market.

Indian refiners have cancelled about 70,000 tons of crude soyoil scheduled for delivery between December and January, as rising global prices and a weaker rupee made local soyoil cheaper than imports, four trade sources told Reuters.

However, the risk of higher Malaysian palm oil stocks by November-end and lower Indonesian palm oil export taxes in December was seen capping the gain in Malaysian palm futures, Bagani added.

Palm oil FCPOc3 may retest resistance at 4,192 ringgit per tonne, as it has stabilised around support at 4,093 ringgit.