KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures extended losses on Friday and looked set for their steepest weekly fall in seven, weighed down by surveys anticipating a rise in end-April inventories.

The benchmark palm oil contract for July delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange slid 271 ringgit, or 4.01%, to 6,471 ringgit ($1,480.78) a tonne during early trade, down for a second straight day in a holiday-shortened week.

Palm drops nearly 5pc on profit-booking, weaker exports

Palm appears set to drop more than 8% for the week, the most since March 18.

Fundamentals

• Malaysia’s palm oil inventories at end-April likely rose for the first time in six months, up 5.2% from the previous month to 1.55 million tonnes, according to a Reuters poll.

• Production is expected to rise 4.9% to a five-month high of 1.48 million tonnes, while exports likely fell 5.6% to 1.2 million tonnes, the survey showed.

• Dalian’s most-active soyoil contract fell 1.3%, while its palm oil contract dropped 2.1%. Soyoil prices on the Chicago Board of Trade were down 1%.

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