MARKET DEVELOPMENT
VEGOILS-Palm Soars Nearly 4 Pct, Lifted By Soy Markets
VEGOILS-Palm Soars Nearly 4 Pct, Lifted By Soy Markets
(Updates prices, adds SGS data)
* Price touches 2,297 rgt, highest since March 9
* Palm lifted by jump in U.S., Chinese soyoil markets
* Malaysia's May palm oil exports surge 45 pct to 1.55 mln T-ITS
* Malaysian ringgit down 0.5 pct to 3.6810
02/06/2015 ( Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures rallied nearly 4 percent to their highest in 2-1/2 months on Monday, tracking a jump in overseas soyoil markets and further underpinned by strong exports for the month of May.
A weak Malaysian currency also stoked buying interest in the ringgit-priced feedstock. The ringgit slid to 3.6810 per dollar, its weakest in almost seven weeks, on concerns that lower crude oil may hurt the country's trade and fiscal accounts.
The August palm oil contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives exchange had risen 3.6 percent to 2,295 ringgit ($623.47) a tonne by Monday's close, after moving between 2,297 and 2,253 ringgit, hitting its highest since March 9.
Total traded volume stood at 34,808 lots of 25 tonnes each, just below the average 35,000 lots.
The U.S. July soyoil contract surged as much as 4.5 percent on Friday, giving a boost to palm oil, a common food and fuel substitute.
The contract was trading at 33.60 U.S. cents per pound by 1009 GMT on Monday, up 0.8 percent, while the most active September soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange was up 1.8 percent.
The rally came after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced an increased target for biodiesel use, for which soyoil is a key feedstock.
"It's the external markets - palm is riding high on everybody's coat tails," said a trader with a foreign
commodities brokerage in Kuala Lumpur.
Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for May rose 44.7 percent to 1,553,281 tonnes from 1,073,482 tonnes in April, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said on Monday, thanks to bigger shipments to key buyers India, China and Europe.
Another cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance reported that exports for the same period rose 44 percent to 1.55 million tonnes.
But signs of a slowdown towards the end of May stoked doubts that the strength in exports could be sustained this month.
"Exports in the last six days (of May) actually dropped, which is disappointing. At the pace of the first 25 days, we were expecting a full month at 1.6-1.7 million tonnes," the Kuala Lumpur trader said.
The trader added that while restocking ahead of the Ramadan festive season may see firm exports in the first two weeks of June, overall exports for the month may be lower than in May.
The Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins in mid-June, is marked by communal fasting and feasting by Muslims, which tends to drive up consumption of edible oils.
In other markets, crude oil prices dropped on Monday on expectations that OPEC production would remain high, stoking worries of oversupply despite declining U.S. rig operations.
Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1012 GMT
Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume
MY PALM OIL JUN5 2270 +100.00 2200 2271 491
MY PALM OIL JUL5 2295 +80.00 2251 2295 2898
MY PALM OIL AUG5 2295 +79.00 2253 2297 19172
CHINA PALM OLEIN SEP5 5184 +48.00 5116 5254 1497370
CHINA SOYOIL SEP5 5856 +104.00 5742 5892 1220394
CBOT SOY OIL JUL5 33.60 -1.10 33.17 33.65 13972
INDIA PALM OIL JUN5 460.90 -1.10 459.30 462.50 1907
INDIA SOYOIL JUN5 614.90 +1.90 611.70 616.60 23000
NYMEX CRUDE JUL5 59.50 -0.80 59.46 60.33 27310
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 = 3.6810 ringgit)
($1 = 6.1995 Chinese yuan)
($1 = 63.69 Indian rupees)
* Price touches 2,297 rgt, highest since March 9
* Palm lifted by jump in U.S., Chinese soyoil markets
* Malaysia's May palm oil exports surge 45 pct to 1.55 mln T-ITS
* Malaysian ringgit down 0.5 pct to 3.6810
02/06/2015 ( Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures rallied nearly 4 percent to their highest in 2-1/2 months on Monday, tracking a jump in overseas soyoil markets and further underpinned by strong exports for the month of May.
A weak Malaysian currency also stoked buying interest in the ringgit-priced feedstock. The ringgit slid to 3.6810 per dollar, its weakest in almost seven weeks, on concerns that lower crude oil may hurt the country's trade and fiscal accounts.
The August palm oil contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives exchange had risen 3.6 percent to 2,295 ringgit ($623.47) a tonne by Monday's close, after moving between 2,297 and 2,253 ringgit, hitting its highest since March 9.
Total traded volume stood at 34,808 lots of 25 tonnes each, just below the average 35,000 lots.
The U.S. July soyoil contract surged as much as 4.5 percent on Friday, giving a boost to palm oil, a common food and fuel substitute.
The contract was trading at 33.60 U.S. cents per pound by 1009 GMT on Monday, up 0.8 percent, while the most active September soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange was up 1.8 percent.
The rally came after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced an increased target for biodiesel use, for which soyoil is a key feedstock.
"It's the external markets - palm is riding high on everybody's coat tails," said a trader with a foreign
commodities brokerage in Kuala Lumpur.
Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for May rose 44.7 percent to 1,553,281 tonnes from 1,073,482 tonnes in April, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said on Monday, thanks to bigger shipments to key buyers India, China and Europe.
Another cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance reported that exports for the same period rose 44 percent to 1.55 million tonnes.
But signs of a slowdown towards the end of May stoked doubts that the strength in exports could be sustained this month.
"Exports in the last six days (of May) actually dropped, which is disappointing. At the pace of the first 25 days, we were expecting a full month at 1.6-1.7 million tonnes," the Kuala Lumpur trader said.
The trader added that while restocking ahead of the Ramadan festive season may see firm exports in the first two weeks of June, overall exports for the month may be lower than in May.
The Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins in mid-June, is marked by communal fasting and feasting by Muslims, which tends to drive up consumption of edible oils.
In other markets, crude oil prices dropped on Monday on expectations that OPEC production would remain high, stoking worries of oversupply despite declining U.S. rig operations.
Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1012 GMT
Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume
MY PALM OIL JUN5 2270 +100.00 2200 2271 491
MY PALM OIL JUL5 2295 +80.00 2251 2295 2898
MY PALM OIL AUG5 2295 +79.00 2253 2297 19172
CHINA PALM OLEIN SEP5 5184 +48.00 5116 5254 1497370
CHINA SOYOIL SEP5 5856 +104.00 5742 5892 1220394
CBOT SOY OIL JUL5 33.60 -1.10 33.17 33.65 13972
INDIA PALM OIL JUN5 460.90 -1.10 459.30 462.50 1907
INDIA SOYOIL JUN5 614.90 +1.90 611.70 616.60 23000
NYMEX CRUDE JUL5 59.50 -0.80 59.46 60.33 27310
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 = 3.6810 ringgit)
($1 = 6.1995 Chinese yuan)
($1 = 63.69 Indian rupees)