Date: Wednesday, 7 October 2020
Time: 12.30
Contract: FCPO-DEC20; 3rd Month
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm
oil futures fell to a one-month low on Wednesday with traders expecting a
slower than forecast decline in February output.
The benchmark palm oil
contract for May delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was down
0.7 percent at 2,245 ringgit ($552.41) a tonne at the close of trade.
Earlier in the session, the
contract fell to 2,238 ringgit, its lowest levels since Jan. 18.
Trading
volumes stood at 42,795 lots of 25 tonnes each at the end of the trading
day.
Output
of the edible oil typically falls during the first quarter of the year in
line with seasonal trend.
February
data is due out on March 10 but some traders are expecting a small fall
month-on-month following the January report.
"Production
for these two months, January and February, (is) higher
year-on-year," said a Kuala Lumpur based trader.
"Exports
also didn't go up as much as people thought."
Malaysia's
palm oil exports from Feb. 1-20 slightly rose 0.03-0.8 percent from a
month earlier, AmSpec Agri Malaysia and Intertek Testing Services reported
on Wednesday.
Another
cargo surveyor, Societe Generale de Surveillance, however reported that
exports fell 4.6 percent in the same time period.
In
other related oils, the Chicago March soybean oil contract was up 0.2
percent, while the May soyoil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange
fell 0.8 percent.
Meanwhile,
the Dalian May palm oil contract declined 1.7 percent.