KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures fell on Tuesday to theirlowest in nearly a month, dragged by weakness in rival edible oils amid global economic concerns, although losses were limited by strong exports.
The benchmark palm oil contract for May delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange slid 40 ringgit, or 0.99%, to 4,003 ringgit ($893.53) a tonne by the midday break.
The contract fell for a third session, hitting its lowest since Feb. 16. “The weak macroeconomics, with a couple of banks in the U.S defaulting, have added further bearish sentiments,” said Anilkumar Bagani, research head of Mumbai-based vegetable oils broker Sunvin Group.
A deal allowing the safe export of grain from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports will be extended automatically after it expires on March 18 if there are no objections from the involved parties, Russia’s TASS state news agency reported on Tuesday.
Soyoil prices on the Chicago Board of Trade ticked up 0.1%, weighed by rising global economic concerns around the stability of the US banking sector.
Dalian’s most-active soyoil contract fell 1.8%, while its palm oil contract eased 1.5%.
Rapeseed oil on the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange slumped 6.7%.
Capping losses, exports of Malaysian palm oil products for March 1-10 rose 50.8% to 487,530 tonnes from Feb. 1-10, cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance said on Monday.
Palm slips to near one-month low on weaker rival oils
India is likely to import 1.5 million tonnes of duty-free sunflower oil during the current fiscal year to March 31, trade and government sources said, half a million tonnes less than the quota allocated by the government.
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 Economics Coordinating Ministry, said on Monday.
Palm oil may retest a support of 3,974 ringgit per tonne, a break below which could open the way towards the 3,892-3,931 ringgit range, Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao said.