Malaysian palm oil hits one-month high on strong export prospects

Malaysian palm oil edged up on Friday evening for its first gain in four sessions on the back of falling production outlook, after earlier hitting its lowest level since August last year on rising global vegetable oil supplies and weak demand..

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures climbed over 1 percent on Friday before paring gains at the close of trade, buoyed by expectations of strong exports and falling production.

The benchmark palm oil contract for March delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange hit a one-month high of 2,615 ringgit ($655.06) per tonne in early trade before settling 0.35 percent higher than the previous close at 2,594 ringgit at the end of the trading day.

Palm is up 3.5 percent on-week so far, its strongest weekly gain since September.

Trading volumes stood at 59,762 lots of 25 tonnes each on Friday evening.

"Looks like strong exports and weaker production ahead is keeping palm higher today," said Kuala Lumpur-based analyst, David Ng of Phillip Futures.

"Prices seem to be supported temporarily," he added.

Malaysia's palm exports for December were estimated to rise 7.8 percent from the previous month, while output was seen falling 6.6 percent, a Reuters survey showed on Friday.

Other analysts said the Malaysian exchange was supported by gains in overseas markets, referring to related oils on the Chicago Board of Trade and China's Dalian Commodity Exchange.

Palm oil prices track the performances of other edible oils, as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.

The March soybean oil contract on the CBOT rose 0.3 percent.

The May soybean oil on the Dalian Commodity Exchange rose 0.3 percent, and the Dalian January palm oil contract was up 0.4 percent. - Reuters