Palm oil up nearly 1% on stronger export data
10/01/2018 (The Edge Markets MY) - KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 10): Malaysian palm oil futures rose nearly 1% on Wednesday, rebounding from a sharp drop in the previous session, as strong export data from a cargo surveyor supported market gains.
Palm oil was up earlier on a weaker ringgit and gains in crude oil prices.
Weakness in the ringgit, palm's currency of trade, typically lends support to the vegetable oil by making it cheaper for holders of foreign currencies.
The ringgit weakened against the dollar on Wednesday morning, but was last up 0.1% at 4.0020 against the dollar.
The benchmark palm oil contract for March delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was up 0.96% at 2,622 ringgit (US$655.17) a tonne at the close of trade, a third session of gains in four.
It had declined 1.1% on Tuesday, its sharpest fall in nearly three weeks.
Trading volumes stood at 55,050 lots of 25 tonnes each on Wednesday evening.
"The market rose on the export data," said a trader from Kuala Lumpur.
The trader was referring to data released in the evening by cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance, which showed Malaysian palm oil exports rising 12.2% during Jan 1-10, compared with the corresponding period last month.
Another cargo surveyor, Intertek Testing Services, reported in early trade that exports in the same period fell 1.4% month-on-month.
In other related edible oils, the March soybean oil contract on the Chicago Board of Trade gained 0.2%, while May soybean oil on the Dalian Commodity Exchange was up 0.4%.
The Dalian January palm oil contract declined 0.3%.
Palm oil tracks the performance of other edible oils, as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.
Earlier in the day, industry regulator the Malaysian Palm Oil Board reported that palm oil stocks in Malaysia rose 7%t on the month to a more than two-year high of 2.7 million tonnes at end-December.
Production fell 5.6% on the month to 1.8 million tonnes, while exports edged up 4.9% to 1.4 million tonnes.
Palm, soy and crude oil prices as of 1110 GMT
|
Contract |
Month |
Last |
Change |
Low |
High |
Volume |
|
MY PALM OIL |
JAN8 |
2570 |
+6.00 |
2546 |
2570 |
51 |
|
MY PALM OIL |
FEB8 |
2624 |
+25.00 |
2588 |
2624 |
2132 |
|
MY PALM OIL |
MAR8 |
2621 |
+25.00 |
2587 |
2626 |
23990 |
|
CHINA PALM OLEIN |
MAY8 |
5330 |
-14.00 |
5314 |
5372 |
297556 |
|
CHINA SOYOIL |
MAY8 |
5798 |
+20.00 |
5766 |
5822 |
305102 |
|
CBOT SOY OIL |
MAR8 |
33.76 |
+0.03 |
33.55 |
33.8 |
6706 |
|
INDIA PALM OIL |
JAN8 |
563.30 |
+3.40 |
560.30 |
563.5 |
1016 |
|
INDIA SOYOIL |
JAN8 |
743 |
+2.70 |
741 |
743.5 |
3240 |
|
NYMEX CRUDE |
FEB8 |
63.40 |
+0.44 |
63.33 |
63.57 |
108390 |
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 = 4.0020 ringgit)
(US$1 = 63.5875 Indian rupees)
(US$1 = 6.5050 Chinese yuan)