KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures rose to their highest in nearly a month on Wednesday as monsoon rains pounded the second-largest grower, leading to severe flooding in parts of the country which traders say has affected harvesting and crushing of palm fruit.
Local media reported that by Wednesday afternoon nearly 63,000 people had been evacuated from floods that swept across six states. Dozens of tourists were also marooned after riverbanks in the east coast state of Pahang overflowed.
"The market is seeing short covering after the recent output
data and flood vagaries," said Lingam Supramaniam, director at
Malaysia-based commodities firm Pelindung Bestari.
"The rainfall is seen delaying harvesting and certain mills
in the east coast are down with flood waters," he added.
The benchmark March contract on the Bursa Malaysia
Derivatives Exchange had edged up 0.5 percent to 2,219 ringgit
($635) per tonne by Wednesday's close in its sixth straight day
of gains, with prices trading at their highest since Nov. 26.
Total traded volume stood at 51,113 lots of 25 tonnes, much
higher than the usual 35,000 lots.
Malaysia's meteorological department on Wednesday afternoon
issued more red level warnings of heavy rains over the east
coast states of Pahang, Kelantan and Terengganu, which alongside
Johor are also vulnerable to rising sea levels.
Pahang is the largest state in Peninsular Malaysia and on
its own accounts for more than 15 percent of the country's total
crude palm oil supply.
Most parts of the country, including the Borneo states of
Sabah and Sarawak, are expected to receive heavier-than-usual
rainfall this week, the department's website showed.
Technicals showed palm oil may approach a key resistance at
2,338 ringgit per tonne over the next three months, a break
above which will lead to a further gain to 2,649 ringgit,
according to Reuters market analyst Wang Tao.
In other markets, Brent futures fell towards $61 per barrel
on Wednesday, giving up some of the previous session's gains, as
the U.S. dollar held near its highest level in nearly nine years
on strong data.
In vegetable oil markets, the most active May soybean oil
contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange lost 0.5
percent in early Asian trade, while the U.S. soyoil contract for
March shed 0.4 percent.
Malaysian palm markets will be closed on Thursday for the
Christmas Day holiday and will reopen on Friday.
Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1014 GMT
Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume
MY PALM OIL JAN5 2215 +6.00 2210 2235 715
MY PALM OIL FEB5 2219 +9.00 2209 2237 5132
MY PALM OIL MAR5 2219 +10.00 2207 2238 25109
CHINA PALM OLEIN MAY5 4930 +0.00 4918 4966 587818
CHINA SOYOIL MAY5 5596 -30.00 5584 5646 263956
CBOT SOY OIL MAR5 32.22 +1.30 32.17 32.50 5439
INDIA PALM OIL DEC4 425.50 +1.30 425.00 429.80 604
INDIA SOYOIL JAN5 611.20 -0.60 609.50 614.40 31400
NYMEX CRUDE FEB5 56.24 -0.88 56.15 57.15 26020
Palm oil prices in Malaysian ringgit per tonne
CBOT soy oil in U.S. cents per pound
Dalian soy oil and RBD palm olein in Chinese yuan per tonne
India soy oil in Indian rupee per 10 kg
Crude in U.S. dollars per barrel
($1 = 3.495 Malaysian ringgit)
($1 = 6.2163 Chinese yuan)
($1 = 63.47 Indian rupee)
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