Palm oil prices make further gains on higher crude oil, stronger exports
The Edge Markets (16/10/2017) - KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 16): Malaysian palm oil futures extended gains on Monday evening, recording a fourth straight day of wins tracking higher crude oil prices and stronger export data from cargo surveyors.
The benchmark palm oil contract price for January delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was up 0.2% at 2,762 ringgit (US$655.20) a tonne at the close of trade. It earlier rose to a daily high of 2,766 ringgit, the best level since Sept 27.
Traded volumes stood at 44,760 lots of 25 tonnes each at the end of the trading day.
"The market is probably up on crude oil," said a futures trader from Kuala Lumpur, adding that higher exports and expectations of slowing output growth supported the market.
Palm oil shipments from Malaysia, the world's second-largest producer after Indonesia, rose in the first-half of October, up 10.3% from the corresponding period last month, showed data from cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services (ITS).
Another cargo surveyor, Societe Generale Surveillance (SGS), reported on Monday evening a 8.7% rise in exports.
Crude oil prices jumped as much as 1.4% during trade on Monday as factional fighting in Iraq, OPEC's second-largest producer, raised concerns over exports.
Palm oil is impacted by movements in crude oil, as the tropical oil is used as feedstock for producing biodiesel, a fuel substitute.
In other related edible oils, the December soybean oil contract on the Chicago Board of Trade slipped 0.2%, while the January soybean oil contract on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange climbed up to 0.8%.
The January palm olein contract was up by 1.3%.
Palm's prices are impacted by movements of related oils, as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.
Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1129 GMT
Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume
MY PALM OIL NOV7 2755 +5.00 2743 2755 582
MY PALM OIL DEC7 2754 +5.00 2741 2756 8105
MY PALM OIL JAN8 2762 +5.00 2747 2766 16930
CHINA PALM OLEIN JAN8 5600 +72.00 5558 5630 373826
CHINA SOYOIL JAN8 6104 +46.00 6070 6124 326258
CBOT SOY OIL DEC7 33.64 -0.05 33.58 33.81 4747
INDIA PALM OIL OCT7 537.70 -0.90 537.00 542 617
INDIA SOYOIL NOV7 669.4 +0.35 668.2 670.5 11500
NYMEX CRUDE NOV7 52.18 +0.73 51.35 52.24 111038
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 = 4.2155 ringgit)
(US$1 = 64.7000 Indian rupees)
(US$1 = 6.5885 Chinese yuan)