Malaysian palm oil futures charted a sixth day of gains in seven on Tuesday evening as the market cheered a bullish outlook on March production and inventory levels. Traders expect Malaysian Palm Oil Board on Wednesday to show declines in March end-stocks because of strong exports and only slight gains in output.
The benchmark palm oil contract for June delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was up 0.6 percent at 2,212 ringgit ($540.57) a tonne at the close. "All the polls are quite bullish, hence the continuation of the market's uptrend," said one Kuala Lumpur-based trader.
Malaysia's palm oil stockpiles in March are likely to have dropped by 6.4 percent from February to 2.85 million tonnes, the lowest in five months, a Reuters survey showed, with a hefty jump in exports outpacing production gains. The market was also expecting export data for the first 10 days in April to show gains from the corresponding period in March, another futures trader said.
Malaysian palm oil export data from cargo surveyors for the April 1-10 period is scheduled for release after 0300 GMT on Wednesday. In related oils, the Chicago May soyabean oil contract was up by a marginal 0.03 percent while the May soyaoil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange gained 0.3 percent. The Dalian May palm oil contract, meanwhile, advanced by 1 percent. Palm oil prices are affected by movements in soyaoil, with which it competes in the global vegetable oil market.