Palm falls on weaker demand outlook; charts weekly gain

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures ended the trading day in negative territory, pressured by expected slower demand, but remained up on the week.

The benchmark palm oil contract for October delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was down 0.6% at 1,972 ringgit ($479.57) by the close, with the weekly gain standing at 1.4%.

"The market was weighed by expectations of weaker exports," said one Kuala Lumpur-based futures trader, referring to Malaysian palm oil export data from cargo surveyors for July 1-20.

Data from AmSpec Agri Malaysia and Intertek Testing Services is scheduled for release on July 20, while export figures from Societe Generale de Surveillance is due on July 22.

The most recently reported data from the cargo surveyors gave export growth estimates for the first half of July ranging from 0.4% to 11.6% month on month.

In related oils US soyoil CBOT futures were last up 0.3%, while the September soyoil contract on the Dalian exchange fell 0.2%.

The Dalian September palm oil contract dipped 0.1%.

Palm oil prices are affected by movements in related oils that compete for a share of the global vegetable oils market.