Malaysian palm oil price falls on firm ringgit, bigger output worries

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures inched down on Wednesday, retreating further from sharp gains made earlier in the week as a firm ringgit and concerns over rising palm supplies stifled buying interest. 
    Benchmark prices on Monday rose above a 3-week top of 2,250
ringgit, partly fuelled by anticipation Indonesia was close to
imposing levies on crude and processed palm oil exports, traders
say. The proposal will likely be approved this week, pending
President Joko Widodo's signature. 
    "People jumped the gun. Some took advantage to try and push
prices up," said one trader with a foreign commodities brokerage
in Kuala Lumpur. "These two days things cooled down a bit
because there's no follow-through."
    A firm Malaysian currency, in which the palm
feedstock is priced, muted buying interest from overseas buyers.
The ringgit was trading at 3.6270 per dollar by 1005 GMT,
stronger than the 3.7211 on March 30. 
    "The strong ringgit also put a dampener on things, because a
week before the ringgit was much weaker," the trader added. 
    The benchmark June contract on the Bursa Malaysia
Derivatives dropped 1.8 percent to 2,168 ringgit ($598) a tonne
by Wednesday's close, settling at the lower end of the day's
trading range between 2,165-2,204 ringgit. 
    Total traded volume stood at 45,771 lots of 25 tonnes, more
than the usual 35,000 lots.  
    
      
    The contract was also weighed by expectations of a strong
recovery in Malaysia's crude palm oil production in March and
April, after bouts of droughts and monsoon flooding in 2014
stressed trees and hindered fresh fruit growth.
    A Reuters poll forecast output in the No.2 grower to surge
18 percent in March from a month ago to 1.32 million tonnes -
its first rise since August. 
    The pick up in output is expected to overtake export sales,
and may lead to end-stocks increasing for the first time in four
months to 1.75 million tonnes, the poll showed.    
    In other markets, oil prices fell towards $58 a barrel on
Wednesday as industry data showed a larger-than-expected weekly
increase in U.S. stockpiles and as Saudi Arabia reported record
output in March. 
    In other vegetable oil markets, the U.S. soyoil May contract
 fell 0.4 percent in late Asian trade, reversing earlier
gains, while the most active September soybean oil contract
 on the Dalian Commodity Exchange lost 0.6 percent.
    
  Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1018 GMT
                                                                                                                                                           
  Contract        Month    Last   Change     Low    High  Volume
  MY PALM OIL      APR5    2160   -34.00    2160    2160      30
  MY PALM OIL      MAY5    2172   -40.00    2171    2204    2031
  MY PALM OIL      JUN5    2168   -39.00    2165    2204   26849
  CHINA PALM OLEIN SEP5    4714   -24.00    4692    4730  303586
  CHINA SOYOIL     SEP5    5414   -30.00    5392    5446  364436
  CBOT SOY OIL     MAY5   30.90    -1.80   30.87   31.09    6966
  INDIA PALM OIL   APR5  440.00    -1.80  439.30  442.80     466
  INDIA SOYOIL     APR5  605.45    -0.45  604.50  609.40    8580
  NYMEX CRUDE      MAY5   52.82    -1.16   52.56   53.23   35363
                                                                                                                                                           
  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 = 3.6270 Malaysian ringgit)    
($1 = 6.2032 Chinese yuan)
($1 = 62.27 Indian rupee)- Reuters