JAKARTA: Malaysian palm oil futures rose as much as 3 percent on Monday as monthly cargo surveyor export data and a weak ringgit combined to support prices.
The benchmark December palm oil contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange ended 2.3 percent higher at the close, at 2,152 ringgit ($505) a tonne.
Prices earlier hit a near a two-week low of 2,088 ringgit, before climbing as high as 2,167 ringgit, and have now gained 8 percent so far this month.
Traded volume stood at 53,510 lots of 25 tonnes each, well above the average 35,000 lots usually traded at the end of the session.
"The market opened lower and then went all the way back up, most likely on the back of the positive export figure," said a trader with a commodities brokerage in Kuala Lumpur.
"The market has seized the opportunity to address last week's selling pressure."
On the data front, exports of Malaysian palm oil products
for Sept. 1-20 rose 7.6 percent, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing
Services (ITS) said.
A weak Malaysian ringgit, which makes palm cheaper
for offshore buyers, also provided a fillip for palm, traders
said.
The ringgit has lost almost 18 percent so far this year, and
is emerging Asia's worst performing currency.
On Friday, palm oil touched its lowest in more than a week
after India raised its import tax on crude vegetable oils.
"We expect this news to have relatively muted impact on CPO
prices as we are of the view that the higher import duties for
edible oils in India will not reduce demand for palm oil in
India significantly," CIMB said in a research note.
"As such, we are sticking to our average CPO price forecast
of 2,230 ringgit per tonne for 2015."
Palm oil still targets 2,068 ringgit per tonne, as indicated
by a Fibonacci retracement analysis, said Reuters market analyst
for commodities and energy technicals Wang Tao.
On the downside, Indonesia's crude palm oil output in August
likely hit its highest in at least a year, a Reuters survey
showed.
In competing vegetable oil markets, the most active January
soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange
slipped 0.2 percent, while the U.S. December soyoil contract
added 1 percent in late Asian trading.
Crude oil prices rose by more than 1 percent after data
showed U.S. drilling slowed and a report said $1.5 trillion
worth of planned production was uneconomic at current prices.
Palm oil often takes price direction from crude oil, as
vegetable oils are increasingly used in making renewable fuels.
Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1004 GMT
Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume
MY PALM OIL OCT5 2085 +51.00 2059 2090 127
MY PALM OIL NOV5 2125 +53.00 2056 2138 5267
MY PALM OIL DEC5 2152 +49.00 2088 2167 27781
CHINA PALM OLEIN JAN6 4294 +20.00 4210 4298 872304
CHINA SOYOIL JAN6 5382 -8.00 5330 5388 463540
CBOT SOY OIL DEC5 26.51 +4.70 26.18 26.54 5169
INDIA PALM OIL SEP5 394.40 +4.70 390.20 396.00 980
INDIA SOYOIL OCT5 572.35 +0.60 569.30 573.50 17070
NYMEX CRUDE OCT5 45.39 +0.71 44.69 45.61 5912
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 = 4.2650 ringgit)
($1 = 65.6600 Indian rupees)
($1 = 6.3676 Chinese yuan renminbi)
- Reuters
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