Palm declines on weaker related oils, output concerns

KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 22): Malaysian palm oil futures reversed early gains on Friday to close in negative territory, tracking declines in soyoil on the U.S. Chicago Board of Trade.

The benchmark palm oil contract for May delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was down 0.3% at 2,257 ringgit (US$552.50) a tonne at the close.

It earlier rose to 2,278 ringgit, its highest in three sessions and is up 0.1% for the week after two previous straight weeks of declines.

Trading volumes stood at 32,041 lots of 25 tonnes each.

"Palm fell, tracking easier external markets," one Kuala Lumpur trader said, referring to U.S. soyoil.

Another trader had said that earlier, market gains were capped by forecasts for higher than usual output.

Palm oil generally registers production declines in the first quarter. Official data last showed that January output in Malaysia fell 3.9% from the previous month to 1.74 million tonnes.

The levels, however, were higher than the 1.59 million tonnes of recorded production in January last year and 1.28 million tonnes in 2017.

Traders are also forecasting February output to fall, from January, but remain up year on year.

In related oils, the Chicago March soybean oil contract was down by 0.5% on Friday.

The May soyoil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange rose 0.5%t and the Dalian May palm oil contract was up 0.1%.   

Palm oil prices are affected by movements in soyoil, which competes for a share in the global vegetable oil market.  

   

 Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1040 GMT 

 Contract           Month    Last  Change     Low   High  Volume

 MY PALM OIL       MAR9      2138   -7.00    2132   2158     725

 MY PALM OIL       APR9      2220  -13.00    2218   2249    4806

 MY PALM OIL       MAY9      2252  -12.00    2250   2278   14440

 CHINA PALM OLEIN  MAY9      4712   +4.00    4698   4754  311030

 CHINA SOYOIL      MAY9      5714  +26.00    5700   5758  352112

 CBOT SOY OIL      MAR9     30.35   -0.14    30.3  30.48    3449

 INDIA PALM OIL    FEB9    564.10   -4.30  563.90  568.3     263

 INDIA SOYOIL      MAR9    767.15   -2.75   766.6    772    4820

 NYMEX CRUDE       APR9     57.04   +0.08   56.71  57.20   74763

 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

(US$1 = 4.0760 ringgit)

(US$1 = 71.1400 Indian rupees)

(US$1 = 6.7199 Chinese yuan)

SOURCE