JAKARTA: Malaysian palm oil futures ticked lower on Monday, extending losses into a seventh week as traders remained cautious over trade and production data released on Monday, despite signs that shipments from the world's second-largest producer increased this month.
By the close on Monday, the benchmark palm oil contract for October on the Bursa
Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was 0.64 percent lower at 2,030 ringgit ($516.93) a tonne,
erasing early gains.
"It came lower because of the MPOB report, which is considered to be bearish," said a trader
with a foreign commodities brokerage, referring to regulator Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB).
"Production is higher, and closing stocks were higher."
Malaysia's palm oil stocks at the end of July rose 5.29 percent to 2.27 million tonnes from
a revised 2.15 million at the end of June, MPOB said on Monday, while production increased 2.93
percent.
Exports of palm oil products for Aug. 1-10 jumped 57.6 percent to 498,993 tonnes from
316,492 tonnes for July 1-10, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said.
According to rival surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS) exports of Malaysian palm
oil products for Aug. 1-10 rose 57.5 percent to 486,451 tonnes from 308,875 tonnes shipped
during July 1-10.
"We have seen enough of a slide, unless we see the fundamentals (worsen) again," the trader
said, noting that if exports remained high prices could rebound.
Last week the contract fell for the sixth week in a row, its longest weekly losing streak in
seven years.
The price could drop to a low of 1,900 ringgit a tonne by the end of September because of
ample supplies and poor demand, vegetable oil analyst Dorab Mistry said on Thursday, but it may
recover to 2,100-2,300 ringgit by the end of November.
In other vegetable oils, the U.S. September soyoil contract was up 0.57 percent in
afternoon Asian trade, while the most active soybean oil contract on the Dalian
Commodity Exchange gained 1.47 percent.
Crude oil futures touched multi-month lows on Monday after a weekend of mixed data from
China showing higher oil imports in July but weaker trade figures overall, hurting sentiment
across the commodities markets.
Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1103 GMT
Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume
MY PALM OIL AUG5 2015 -21.00 2013 2055 142
MY PALM OIL SEP5 2024 -15.00 2011 2055 2219
MY PALM OIL OCT5 2030 -13.00 2017 2061 22690
CHINA PALM OLEIN JAN6 4566 +12.00 4532 4624 694122
CHINA SOYOIL JAN6 5530 +80.00 5462 5588 722070
CBOT SOY OIL DEC5 30.38 -2.00 30.32 30.80 8806
INDIA PALM OIL AUG5 398.50 -2.00 396.00 401.40 1196
INDIA SOYOIL AUG5 577.00 +5.15 571.60 578.80 61400
NYMEX CRUDE SEP5 43.88 +0.01 43.35 44.01 35838
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 Indian rupees
1 Chinese yuan
($1 = 3.9270 ringgit)
- Reuters
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