Malaysian palm oil price falls on slow-moving demand

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures dropped for a second straight session on Monday due to slow-moving demand amid higher production, although a weaker ringgit, higher crude oil prices and improving exports limited falls.
    The February benchmark palm oil contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange had fallen 1.8 percent to 2,301 ringgit ($525.22) a tonne by the end of the trading session.
    "There's external weakness to the market, production is still high and demand is slow moving," said a trader based in Kuala Lumpur.
    "This is despite a weak ringgit and better export numbers." 
    Export data from cargo surveyors showed gains of 2-4 percent for the first 15 days of November compared with a month before.  
    Palm usually finds support from a weaker ringgit, the currency it is traded in, as this makes the vegetable oil cheaper for holders of foreign currencies. The ringgit lost 0.3 percent against the dollar on Monday.
    Crude oil futures rose as France launched large-scale air strikes against
Islamic State in Syria. Palm oil normally takes price direction from crude oil,
as vegetable oils are increasingly used in making renewable fuels. 
    Traded volume stood at 66,867 lots of 25 tonnes each, more than the average
35,000 lots usually traded in a day.
    Palm oil may retest support at 2,219 ringgit per tonne, as indicated by its
wave pattern and a Fibonacci projection analysis, said Wang Tao, a Reuters
market analyst for commodities and energy technicals. 
    In competing vegetable oil markets, the U.S. December soyoil contract 
lost 0.4 percent, while the January soybean oil contract on the Dalian
Commodity Exchange fell 0.5 percent.

  Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1004 GMT
                                                                  
  Contract        Month    Last   Change     Low    High  Volume
  MY PALM OIL      DEC5    2130   -53.00    2121    2180     989
  MY PALM OIL      JAN6    2222   -67.00    2213    2289   20483
  MY PALM OIL      FEB6    2301   -43.00    2287    2344   24128
  CHINA PALM OLEIN JAN6    4140   -36.00    4130    4166  523224
  CHINA SOYOIL     JAN6    5450   -26.00    5426    5488  398416
  CBOT SOY OIL     DEC5   26.94    -5.30   26.91   27.19    4755
  INDIA PALM OIL   NOV5  386.20    -5.30  384.80  390.80     915
  INDIA SOYOIL     NOV5  593.65    -9.60  592.70  600.00   10650
  NYMEX CRUDE      DEC5   41.14    +0.40   40.58   41.20   30768
                                                                  
  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 = 4.3810 ringgit)
($1 = 65.9800 Indian rupees)
($1 = 6.3700 Chinese yuan)
- Reuters