KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures rose to their highest in nearly two weeks on Tuesday, pulling up from three-week lows in the previous session, boosted by a jump in overseas edible oil markets and strong export demand.
Traders said overnight gains in U.S. and Chinese soyoil have
paved the way for palm to rise, after Malaysian exports surged
in the May 1-25 period.
The U.S. July soyoil contract was up 1.2 percent in
late Asian trade after reopening following the U.S. Memorial Day
holiday. The most active September soybean oil contract
on the Dalian Commodity Exchange had climbed 1.8 percent by 1017
GMT, after rising as high as 5,820 yuan ($938.12).
Palm typically tracks rival soyoil, a common food and fuel
substitute.
"Our market could not move much because soybean oil didn't
move in the last few days. So when these overseas vegetable oil
markets went up, palm just followed," said a trader with a
foreign commodities brokerage in Kuala Lumpur.
"The immediate resistance for palm is now 2,200 ringgit,"
the trader added. "If it can hold above that, then it may move
into a new territory."
The benchmark August contract on the Bursa
Malaysia Derivatives exchange touched an intraday high of 2,192
ringgit, its highest since May 15, before settling at 2,184
ringgit ($602.32) a tonne by Tuesday's close - up 2.2 percent.
Prices on Monday had dropped to 2,121 ringgit, the lowest level
for this month.
Total traded volume stood at 36,944 lots of 25 tonnes each,
just above the average 35,000 lots.
Export data released from cargo surveyor Intertek Testing
Services reported a 52.9-percent jump in Malaysian palm oil
shipments in the first 25 days compared to the same period a
month ago, with purchases of crude palm oil rising nearly
tenfold.
Another cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance
reported a 55 percent increase for the same period to 1.4
million tonnes shipped.
Meanwhile, Indonesia's exports of palm and palm kernel oils
for April rose 11 percent from a month earlier to their highest
since November at 2.254 million tonnes, the Indonesian Palm Oil
Association (GAPKI) said in a statement on Tuesday.
Technical charts were also supportive. Palm oil may rise to
2,203 ringgit per tonne, as it has cleared resistance at 2,183
ringgit, according to Reuters market analyst Wang Tao.
In other markets, oil fell to around $65 a barrel on
Tuesday, pressured by the possibility that U.S. shale oil
producers could increase drilling activity and by a stronger
dollar.
Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1020 GMT
Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume
MY PALM OIL JUN5 2168 +31.00 2160 2168 48
MY PALM OIL JUL5 2187 +44.00 2158 2192 3188
MY PALM OIL AUG5 2184 +46.00 2155 2192 20801
CHINA PALM OLEIN SEP5 5058 +154.00 4918 5090 886790
CHINA SOYOIL SEP5 5762 +102.00 5662 5820 888554
CBOT SOY OIL JUL5 32.00 +3.40 31.59 32.33 11561
INDIA PALM OIL MAY5 453.10 +3.40 452.00 455.00 434
INDIA SOYOIL JUN5 596.50 +1.95 594.30 599.70 17460
NYMEX CRUDE JUL5 59.30 -0.42 59.10 60.25 62673
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 = 3.6260 ringgit)
($1 = 6.2040 Chinese yuan)
($1 = 63.94 Indian rupees)- Reuters
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