Palm slides on bearish forecasts, weaker related oils

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures fell for a second straight session on Thursday in its sharpest daily decline in a week on bearish production and inventory forecasts for August, while weakness in related edible oils also weighed.

Palm oil end-stocks in August are likely to have gained 9 percent to a six-month high of 2.41 million tonnes and output was seen rising 9.9 percent to 1.65 million tonnes, a Reuters poll showed.

The benchmark palm oil contract for November delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was down 0.6 percent at 2,277 ringgit ($549.60) a tonne at the close of trade, having hit a two-month high of 2,303 ringgit in the previous session before finishing in negative territory.

Trading volumes stood at 26,289 lots of 25 tonnes each at the close of trade. <1FCPO-TOT>

"All the polls ahead of official data are bearish," said one Singapore-based futures trader, referring to the Reuters poll and forecasts by industry analysts.

Another futures trader said the market also tracked overnight losses in soyoil on the Chicago Board of Trade.

The Chicago September soybean oil contract was down 0.1 percent on Thursday after shedding 0.7 percent in the previous session on renewed concerns over US-China trade.

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the United States was not ready to come to an agreement in its trade dispute with China but that talks would continue.

In related oils, the January soybean oil contract on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange edged up by 0.03 percent, while the Dalian January palm oil contract dipped by 0.04 percent.

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