Malaysian palm oil futures fell over 1 percent on Tuesday, retreating from seven-month highs hit the previous session on weakness in Chicago soyaoil. The benchmark palm oil contract for April delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was down 1.4 percent at 2,294 ringgit ($558.15) a tonne. Trading volumes stood at 31,289 lots of 25 tonnes each.
Palm oil futures rose for a sixth session in seven on Monday and hit their highest in nearly seven months, tracking strength in related edible oils. "(The) market is overbought, so the fall is not a surprise," said a Kuala Lumpur-based trader. Prices of soyaoil on the Chicago Board of Trade fell for a second straight session on Tuesday with concerns over escalating US-China trade tensions and improved weather in Brazil weighing on the market.
The Chicago March soyabean oil contract was down 0.6 percent. "There is a lack of new catalyst and the market may have already factored in positive export data," said another futures trader from Kuala Lumpur. Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for Jan. 1-25 rose 12 percent to 1,207,619 tonnes from 1,078,274 tonnes shipped a month earlier, cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance said on Tuesday.
Palm oil still targets 2,351 ringgit per tonne as it has stabilised above prior resistance at 2,322 ringgit, Wang Tao, a Reuters market analyst for commodities and energy technicals, said. In other related oils, the May soyabean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange was up 0.6 percent, while the Dalian May palm oil contract rose 0.2.
Palm oil prices are affected by movements in soyaoil rates, as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oil market. Malaysian markets will be closed on Feb. 5-6 for the Lunar New Year celebrations.
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