Palm oil down after three-day rally on weaker rival oils

22 Feb, 2023

JAKARTA: Malaysian palm oil futures ended lower on Tuesday on profit-taking after a three-day rally tracking weakness in rival edible oil prices, although concerns over potentially lower production limited losses.

The benchmark palm oil contract for May delivery dropped 0.67% to 4,139 ringgit ($934.21) per tonne by the end of the afternoon session, after gaining 5.79% in the last three days.

Palm fell on profit-taking “following weakness in CBOT soyoil futures in Asian hours and a lack of follow-up buying from destination markets as the stocks are reasonably high,” said Anilkumar Bagani, research head of Mumbai-based vegetable oils broker Sunvin Group.

“On the other hand, the production prospects are not seen good at both Malaysia and Indonesia this month.” Soyoil prices on the Chicago Board of Trade dropped 0.49% after reopening from a long weekend. Meanwhile, Dalian’s most-active soyoil contract lost 0.11%, while its palm oil contract posted a thin 0.07%% decline.

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

Malaysian palm oil product exports for Feb. 1-20 rose between 27.7% and 33.1% from a month earlier, data from independent inspection company AmSpec Agri Malaysia and cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services showed on Monday.

Cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance said on Tuesday Malaysian palm oil exports rose 8.8% for the same period.

Palm oil may break a resistance at 4,196 ringgit per tonne, and rise towards a narrow range of 4,311 ringgit to 4,343 ringgit, said Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao.

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