KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures fell to a near one-month low on Monday, under pressure from weakness in rival edible oils, though losses were curbed by upbeat export demand.

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

The benchmark palm oil contract for May delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was down 48 ringgit, or 1.17%, to 4,045 ringgit ($900.49) a tonne.

Palm fell for a fifth in six sessions to its lowest since Feb. 15.

“CPO price is likely to be supported due to concerns over lower palm oil exports from Indonesia and weaker supply growth from Malaysia,” Ivy Ng, regional head of plantations research at CGS-CIMB Research, said in a note.

Palm oil may drop more into 4,006-4,052 ringgit range

Indonesia plans to set its crude palm oil reference price at $911.41 per tonne for March 16-31, up from $889.77 per tonne in the first half of the month, Musdhalifah Machmud, an official at the Economic Coordinating Ministry said.

Malaysia’s end-February palm oil inventories tumbled to the lowest in six months as production and imports plummeted, data issued by the nation’s palm oil board showed on Friday.

Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for March 1-10 rose 50.8% to 487,530 tonnes from 323,280 tonnes shipped during Feb. 1-10, cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance said.

CGS-CIMB forecast palm oil stocks to fall by 13% to 1.84 million tonnes month-on-month by end-March due to higher exports demand ahead of the Eid festival and slower growth in supply due to floods in Malaysia.

Dalian’s most-active soyoil contract fell 1.3% while its palm oil contract lost 1.5%. Soyoil prices on the Chicago Board of Trade were down 0.4%.