Reuters (02/05/2018) - KUALA LUMPUR (May 2): Malaysian palm oil futures rose on the back of a weaker ringgit in its early session on Wednesday, but pared gains in the second half of trade as strength in related edible oils eased. 

The benchmark palm oil contract for July delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was up 0.04% at RM2,363 (US$600.81) a tonne at the close of trade, its first gain in seven days.

Trading volumes stood at 30,072 lots of 25 tonnes each on Wednesday evening.

"External markets have come off their highs, and a lack of follow through buying led to some profit taking," said a futures trader in Kuala Lumpur.

"However, the weak ringgit capped palm's downside."

Weakness in the ringgit, palm's currency of trade, typically supports palm by making it cheaper for holders of foreign currencies, propping up demand.

The ringgit weakened on Wednesday to its lowest level against the dollar since Feb. 14, and was last down 0.3% at 3.9330. It has steadily declined over the past month, and has lost 1.8% of its value since the start of April.

Palm had fallen to a two-week low in its previous session, and was down 1.3% last week as traders turned bearish over weak export demand.  

Malaysian palm oil product exports fell 5.7% for the full month of April versus March, inspection company AmSpec Agri Malaysia reported. Meanwhile, cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance showed a 4.5% decline for the same time period as Indian demand weakened.

In other related oils, the Chicago July soybean oil contract rose 0.4%, while September soybean oil on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange was also up 0.4%.

The Dalian September palm oil contract edged up 0.04%.

Palm oil is impacted by movements in rival edible oils as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.

Palm, soy and crude oil prices, as of 1101 GMT

Contract                      Month     Last   Change    Low     High    Volume

MY PALM OIL               MAY8     2345     +17.00    2340     2348      51

MY PALM OIL               JUN8       2362      +2.00    2360     2381    3414

MY PALM OIL               JUL8       2361     +1.00     2359     2382   13058

CHINA PALM OLEIN    SEP8       4986     +2.00     4950     4994    175734

CHINA SOYOIL           SEP8       5758     +22.00    5682     5768    265454

CBOT SOY OIL            JUL8       30.48     +0.00    30.33    30.58     7479

INDIA PALM OIL          MAY8    637.40     -3.20    635.70    643.3    1191

INDIA SOYOIL             MAY8    750.95     -8.15     749.05   758.9     8380

NYMEX CRUDE          JUN8       67.40     +0.15      67.32     67.85   133700

Palm oil prices in Malaysian ringgit per tonne

CBOT soy oil in US 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 US dollars per barrel

(US$1 = RM3.9330)

(US$1 = 66.6600 Indian rupees)

(US$1 = 6.3571 Chinese yuan)

Read more at http://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/palm-pares-gains-after-early-rise-strength-related-oils-eases