KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures slipped on Friday from a fresh one-month high hit in early trade as it tracked losses in US soyoil on the Chicago Board of Trade.
The benchmark palm oil contract for June delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange fell 0.2 percent to 2,468 ringgit ($638.22) a tonne at the midday break.
Palm earlier rose to 2,483 ringgit a tonne, its highest since March 6. It has gained 1.8 percent so far this week.
Trading volumes stood at 19,292 lots of 25 tonnes each at noon.
"The market is down tracking US soyoil and on some profit-taking," said a Kuala Lumpur based trader.
Another trader said palm could be seeing some pullback "after strong upside in the last two days" and that the market was also weighed down by expectations of higher production.
Palm prices have been supported by news of China's increase in tariffs by up to 25 percent on 106 US products including soybeans, as the spread between palm and soyoil is expected to widen as the latter becomes more costly in Beijing.
The market is also awaiting on official data announcement from industry regulator the Malaysian Palm Oil Board, which is scheduled to release end-March data on April 10.
Palm oil stockpiles in Malaysia, the world's second largest producer of the tropical oil, are expected to have slipped to their lowest in five months, down 8.6 percent from February to 2.27 million tonnes, according to a Reuters poll on Thursday.
The survey also showed exports to have risen to the highest
in over a-year-and-a-half at 1.57 million tonnes, up 19.3 percent from February. Meanwhile production is seen up 11.3 percent to 1.49 million tonnes in March, its first monthly gain in five.
In related oils, the Chicago Board of Trade's May soybean oil contract declined 0.5 percent, in line with soybean futures losses on market fears that a trade war between the world's two largest economies could hit demand for US soy.
China's Dalian Commodity Exchange is closed on Friday for a national holiday.
Palm oil prices are impacted by movements in rival edible oils as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.
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