Malaysian palm oil price rises on lower-than-forecast output, short-covering

Malaysian palm oil futures fell on Tuesday, its seventh straight losing session, as bearish palm fundamentals and declining rival oils weighed on the market. (Worker load and arrange palm oil fruits on top of a lorry inside a palm oil factory area in Sungai Besar, Selangor on Monday June 13, 2016.- FAIHAN GHANI/The Star)

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures rose to a one-week high on Monday, lifted by weaker-than-expected output and short-covering before public holidays.

Benchmark palm oil futures for September delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange gained 1.8 percent at 2,391 ringgit ($599) per tonne at the close of trade. It earlier reached an intraday high of 2,402 ringgit, its strongest level in a week.

Traded volumes stood at 30,596 lots of 25 tonnes each on Monday evening, below the 2015 average of 44,600.

"It could be short-covering ahead of the long holidays, and production is not coming in as expected," said one trader from Kuala Lumpur. Malaysian markets will be closed on Wednesday and Thursday for Eid celebration.

Palm is expected to continue its downward trend after losing 10.2 percent in June, as production is likely to rise seasonally and exports slow down with Ramadan drawing to a close.

The Muslim holy festival entails a month of fasting followed by communal feasting, boosting demand for palm oil for cooking. Buyers caused a surge in exports while stocking up on supplies ahead of Ramadan in May, leading to expectations of declining shipments in June and July.

Palm oil failed to break a resistance at 2,402 ringgit per tonne and may either hover below this level or retrace to a support at 2,370 ringgit before rising again, according to analysis by Wang Tao, a Reuters market analyst for commodities and energy technicals.

The Chicago Board of Trade soyoil contract for December was closed on Monday for the U.S. Independence Day holiday, while the September soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange rose 2.7 percent.

The July offer price for crude palm kernel oil stood at 5,076.12 ringgit per tonne in the evening, according to price assessments by Thomson Reuters. ($1 = 3.9940 ringgit) ($1 = 67.2725 Indian rupees) ($1 = 6.6630 Chinese yuan)- Reuters