Palm oil slips on weaker overnight soyaoil prices

Malaysian palm oil futures fell on Friday, tracking losses in overnight soyaoil prices on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT). Traders also booked profit ahead of the weekend and the release of September cargo surveyor data, amid expectation that exports growth would slow down. Intertek Testing Services (ITS) is scheduled to release palm oil shipment data for the whole September after 0300 GMT on Saturday.
Malaysian palm oil shipments during Sept. 1-25 rose 16.1 percent from a month earlier, ITS data showed. Traders said exports in September would rise but at a slower pace. The benchmark palm oil contract for December delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was down 0.3 percent at 2,695 ringgit ($638.78) a tonne at the close of trade. It has declined 1.5 percent so far this week, a second straight weekly drop.
Traded volumes stood at 59,688 lots of 25 tonnes each on Friday evening. "Palm saw declines on weakness in overnight oilseed (prices)," said a trader from Kuala Lumpur. Palm oil prices are affected by the performance of related edible oils such as soya, as they compete for a share of the global vegetable oils market. The December soyabean oil contract on the Chicago Board of Trade fell to a near three-month low on Thursday, losing 1.2 percent at Thursday's close of trade. It was last down 0.3 percent on Friday. In other related oils, the January soyabean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange rose 0.1 percent, while the January palm olein contract was up 0.1 percent.