SINGAPORE: Malaysian palm oil futures slid for a third session on Wednesday, falling 3 percent to a six-week low as Chinese stocks tumbled and the Greek debt crisis continued to hammer markets.
Asian shares fell and the safe-haven yen rallied as Chinese
stocks remained in a tailspin, shaking investors already rattled
by Greece's debt crisis.
"It all started with Greece and now markets across Asia are
taking a hit," said one Kuala Lumpur-based palm oil trader.
"Chinese commodity markets, including rubber and metals, are
falling sharply which is impacting palm oil."
The September palm oil contract on the Bursa
Malaysia Derivatives exchange dropped 2.58 percent, or 57
ringgit, to 2,152 ringgit ($565.72) a tonne by the close.
Chinese stocks plunged after the securities regulator said
the tumbling stock market in the world's second-biggest economy
was in the grip of "panic sentiment" as investors ignored a
battery of support measures from Beijing.
Soybean futures on the Dalian Commodity Exchange
slid to their lowest since August 2013 and soybean oil
lost 4 percent to its lowest since mid-March.
Traded volume for palm stood at 28,212 lots of 25 tonnes
each for the most-active contract, up from the daily average of
23,000 lots for 2015 so far.
Investors in the palm oil market are expecting the Malaysian
Palm Oil Board to report later this week that the country's palm
oil output in June fell by 1.5-2 percent from a month earlier.
That could bring down stockpiles as exports have been rising.
Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for June rose 9.4
percent from a month ago to 1,696,096 tonnes, cargo surveyor
Societe Generale de Surveillance said.
Palm oil is expected to seek support around 2,139 ringgit
and then either hover around this level or rebound moderately,
according to Wang Tao, a Reuters market analyst for commodities
technicals.
The support is provided by the 76.4 percent Fibonacci
retracement on the uptrend from the April 29 low of 2,070
ringgit to the June 8 high of 2,362 ringgit.
Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1011 GMT
Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume
MY PALM OIL AUG5 2150 -54.00 2130 2158 3642
MY PALM OIL SEP5 2152 -57.00 2132 2156 28212
CHINA PALM OLEIN JAN6 4774 -198.00 4774 4920 483190
CHINA SOYOIL JAN6 5474 -228.00 5474 5654 460374
CBOT SOY OIL DEC5 31.65 +0.60 31.60 32.02 6017
INDIA PALM OIL JUL5 429.40 +0.60 424.60 430.60 1478
INDIA SOYOIL AUG5 571.30 +0.45 566.80 571.80 53045
NYMEX CRUDE AUG5 52.74 +0.41 51.46 52.96 44529
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 = 3.8040 ringgit)
- Reuters
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