24.04.2018 (The Edge Markets MY) - KUALA LUMPUR (April 24): Malaysian palm oil futures dipped on Tuesday evening, hitting their lowest in a week and tracking overnight losses in related edible oils such as soyoil on the U.S. Chicago Board of Trade and China's Dalian Commodity Exchange. 

A weaker ringgit, however, may curb further declines in palm prices, traders said.

The benchmark palm oil contract for July delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange dropped 0.5% to 2,397 ringgit (US$614.14) a tonne at the close of trade in a second consecutive day of declines. 

Earlier in the session, the palm oil contract touched 2,391 ringgit, its weakest since April 18.

Trading volumes stood at 30,698 lots of 25 tonnes each at the end of the trading day.

"Weakness in competing edible oils is weighing on the market," said a Kuala Lumpur-based futures trader. 

"Depreciation in the local currency, however, may provide support and cushion selling interest," he said, referring to the Malaysian ringgit, palm's currency of trade. 

The ringgit has steadily weakened in the past two weeks and shed 1% of its value against the dollar since April 11.

It was down 0.2% at 3.9030 per dollar on Tuesday evening.

A weaker ringgit makes palm oil cheaper for holders of foreign currencies. 

Palm oil may retest a resistance at 2,434 ringgit per tonne, a break above which could lead to a gain to the next resistance at 2,476 ringgit, said Wang Tao, a Reuters market analyst for commodities and energy technicals. 

In other related oils, Chicago's July soybean oil contract posted a decline of 0.8% in the previous session, and edged up 0.1% on Tuesday. 

Meanwhile, September soybean oil on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange slid as much as 1.1%, while the Dalian September palm oil contract fell up to 0.8%. 

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 1055 GMT

 Contract                      Month      Last      Change        Low         High     Volume
 MY PALM OIL             MAY8     2393         -7.00         2385        2399        148
 MY PALM OIL             JUN8      2397       -11.00         2393        2407       4202
 MY PALM OIL             JUL8      2397       -11.00         2391        2405      10598
 CHINA PALM OLEIN  SEP8      4980       -42.00         4974       5008     298266
 CHINA SOYOIL          SEP8      5762       -66.00         5760       5824     360764
 CBOT SOY OIL           JUL8     31.32        +0.01        31.22      31.37         8540
 INDIA PALM OIL         APR8   642.80        -1.10       641.40      643.9          358
 INDIA SOYOIL            MAY8       772         -0.75       770.25      776.5        9060
 NYMEX CRUDE          JUN8    68.93        +0.29         68.77      69.33     150670

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 = 3.9030 ringgit)
(US$1 = 66.3550 Indian rupees)
(US$1 = 6.3045 Chinese yuan)