JAKARTA: Malaysian palm oil futures declined for a fourth straight session on Monday to their lowest in nearly three weeks as traders sold positions after data showed exports fell this month, and as competing oil markets weighed on prices.
By the day's close, the benchmark palm oil for October
delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange
was down 1.74 percent at 2,140 ringgit ($561.39) a tonne after
hitting 2,139 ringgit, its lowest since July 8, earlier in the
session.
Total traded volume stood at 41,956 lots of 25 tonnes each,
well above the roughly 35,500 lots usually traded daily.
"The market is weak. The export figure is bearish," said a
trader with a foreign commodities brokerage in Kuala Lumpur,
adding that competing markets also fell.
"Every indicator points to the market being weak, and our
palm will continue the movement down."
Export data released by cargo surveyor Intertek Testing
Services (ITS) for July 1-25, showed a nearly 18 percent decline
in shipments of Malaysian palm oil at 1,152,045 tonnes compared
with 1,400,162 tonnes shipped during June 1-25.
Societe Generale de Surveillance, another cargo surveyor,
said exports of Malaysian palm oil products for July 1-25 fell
15.4 percent to 1,178,568 tonnes from 1,393,204 tonnes shipped
during June 1-25.
For palm prices to break the current downtrend, exports need
to pick up, the trader said.
"We need demand from the consuming countries because from
this point onwards, all the way to November, our production will
be rising."
In competing markets, oil prices fell to near four-month
lows on Monday after a steep drop in Chinese stock markets and
on more evidence of a global oil supply glut that has halved
prices over the past year.
The U.S. soyoil contract for August was down 0.82
percent in early Asian trade, while the most active January
soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange
lost 1.86 percent. Dalian RBD palm oil for September delivery
was down 2.12 percent.
Chicago Board of Trade November soybean futures fell
1.1 percent to $9.54-1/4 a bushel, near the session low of $9.50
a bushel - lowest since June 23. Soybeans have dropped for nine
sessions out of 10.
Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1019 GMT
Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume
MY PALM OIL AUG5 2146 -34.00 2145 2160 342
MY PALM OIL SEP5 2142 -36.00 2142 2160 5399
MY PALM OIL OCT5 2140 -38.00 2139 2159 21525
CHINA PALM OLEIN JAN6 4756 -114.00 4736 4874 678800
CHINA SOYOIL JAN6 5490 -104.00 5468 5592 655820
CBOT SOY OIL DEC5 30.59 -1.80 30.58 30.91 9317
INDIA PALM OIL JUL5 426.30 -1.80 425.00 427.70 662
INDIA SOYOIL AUG5 566.00 -3.95 565.40 568.80 20385
NYMEX CRUDE SEP5 47.79 -0.35 47.75 48.20 26515
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 = 3.8120 ringgit)
($1 = 6.2091 Chinese yuan)
($1 = 64.1550 Indian rupees)
- Reuters
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