KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures hit a near two-week low on Wednesday, dragged by weakness in rival edible oils and expectations for a drop in exports during the first half of December.

Extending losses to a third day, the benchmark palm oil contract for February delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange slid 106 ringgit, or 2.26%, to 4,593 ringgit ($1,084.53) a tonne during early trade.

It fell 0.72% during overnight trade.

Fundamentals

• Traders are expecting export shipments during the first half of December to decline 5.7% from the month before. Cargo surveyors are scheduled to release their estimates later in the day.

• Rapeseed output in India is likely to rise as much as 29.4% this year as farmers plant more area with the winter-sown oilseed, which will help the world's biggest importer of vegetable oils to reduce expensive imports.

• Dalian's most-active soyoil contract fell 1.2%, while its palm oil contract lost 1.6%. Soyoil prices on the Chicago Board of Trade were down 0.4%.

• Palm oil is affected by price movements in related oils as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.

• Palm oil may fall to 4,555 ringgit per tonne, driven by a wave a, Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao said.