SINGAPORE Malaysian palm oil rose on Wednesday on the back of a weaker ringgit, but continued to
trade in a range for a fourth consecutive session.
The benchmark January palm oil contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange gained 0.9 percent to reach 2,343 ringgit ($549.36) a tonne at the end of the trading day.
It has been trading within a range since Friday, but hit a two-week low of 2,260 ringgit on Tuesday.
"The market's behaviour is difficult to understand today. Soyoil is low and exports to date are not impressive," said a Kuala Lumpur-based trader, explaining that such factors should
be weighing the market down.
"The only upshot is the ringgit factor."
Traded volume stood at 55,979 lots of 25 tonnes each, well
above the average 35,000 lots usually traded in a day.
The ringgit lost 0.1 percent against the dollar on
Wednesday as the local stock market continued to underperform. A
weaker ringgit usually supports palm prices, as it makes the
vegetable oil cheaper for overseas buyers holding other
currencies.
Palm oil may retest support at 2,264 ringgit per tonne, as
it has failed to break a resistance at 2,328 ringgit. A rise to
2,331 ringgit could confirm a break above 2,328 ringgit, and
target 2,350 ringgit, said Reuters market analyst for
commodities and energy technicals Wang Tao.
In other vegetable oil markets, the U.S. December soyoil
contract was up 0.6 percent while the January soybean oil
contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange lost 0.1
percent.
Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1014 GMT
Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume
MY PALM OIL NOV5 2252 +9.00 2230 2252 395
MY PALM OIL DEC5 2300 +19.00 2259 2300 2286
MY PALM OIL JAN6 2343 +21.00 2299 2343 31975
CHINA PALM OLEIN JAN6 4418 -2.00 4388 4460 1331238
CHINA SOYOIL JAN6 5526 -6.00 5498 5580 659742
CBOT SOY OIL DEC5 28.11 +2.00 27.67 28.13 8625
INDIA PALM OIL OCT5 404.40 +2.00 402.70 405.70 402
INDIA SOYOIL NOV5 623.85 +2.70 620.20 624.80 31675
NYMEX CRUDE DEC5 43.45 +0.25 43.06 43.67 29559
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 = 65.0200 Indian rupees)
($1 = 6.3588 Chinese yuan)
- Reuters
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