Malaysian palm oil futures fell for a fourth consecutive session on Monday, weighed down by a stronger ringgit, palm's currency of trade. A stronger ringgit usually makes palm oil more expensive for holders of foreign currencies.
The ringgit strengthened 0.2 percent to 4.4360 per dollar on Monday, its strongest level in more than a month. Benchmark palm oil futures for April delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange were down 0.2 percent at 3,096 ringgit ($698) a tonne at the close of trade. The contract earlier fell to 3,089 ringgit, its lowest level since January 16. Traded volumes stood at 24,835 lots of 25 tonnes each at the end of the trading day.
Palm fell due to a stronger ringgit, a futures trader from Kuala Lumpur said.
Another trader said the market was uncertain about production trends despite bullish comments from leading analysts at the Pakistan Edible Oils Conference on Saturday.
"The market is expecting January to be another slow month, with close to double-digit declines," he said.
Palm oil output has declined each month since October, in line with seasonal trends and as fruit yields continue to be hurt by the lingering dry weather impact of El Nino.
Palm oil prices are expected to hit 3,300 ringgit a tonne by early March, while Indonesian output is forecast to range between 33.5-34 million tonnes this year, said analyst Dorab Mistry at the conference in Pakistan.
Palm oil may break support at 3,089 ringgit and fall towards the next support level at 3,014 ringgit, said a Reuters market analyst for commodities and energy technicals.
In related vegetable oils, the March soyabean oil contract on the CBOT was down 0.1 percent, while the May soyabean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange fell 0.5 percent.
The May contract for Dalian palm olein fell 0.5 percent. Palm prices are usually impacted by movements in prices of related edible oils as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.
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