JAKARTA: Malaysian palm oil futures closed lower on Tuesday, extending losses for a second session, weighed down by a selloff in rival vegetable oils.

The benchmark palm oil contract for December delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange lost 1 ringgit, or 0.03%, to 3,748 ringgit ($798.47) per metric ton at close.

The futures earlier opened a gap lower, as selling pressure accelerated due to a selloff in CBOT Soy oil futures overnight and in Chinese Palmolein, Soy oil and Rapeseed oil futures and in CBOT Soy oil futures in Asian hours today, said Anilkumar Bagani, Research Head of Sunvin Group India.

Dalian’s most-active soyoil contract was down 2.00%, while its palm oil contract lost 1.38%. Soyoil prices on the Chicago Board of Trade declined 0.34%.

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

Malaysia on Tuesday maintained its October export tax for crude palm oil at 8% and lowered its reference price to 3,710.50 ringgit per metric ton from September reference of 3,755.13 ringgit.

In the meantime, Indonesia set its crude palm oil reference price at $798.83 per ton for Sept. 16-30, down from the first half of the month. However, the export tax and levy were left unchanged at $33 per ton and $85 per ton, respectively.

Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for September 1-15 fell 11.8% to 580,893 metric tons from 658,475 metric tons shipped during August 1-15, according to cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services.

According to independent inspection company AmSpec Agri Malaysia, however, the exports of Malaysian palm oil products for Sept. 1-15 fell 9.3% from a month earlier to 574,936 tons.

Palm oil may revisit its Sept. 12 low of 3,667 ringgit per ton, as it may have completed a bounce from this level, according to Reuters’ technical analyst Wang Tao.