18.10.2018 (The Edge Markets MY) - KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 18): Malaysian palm oil futures fell more than 1% at the midday break on Thursday, after two winning sessions, as it tracked weaker crude oil prices as well as US soyoil on the Chicago Board of Trade.

The benchmark palm oil contract for January delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was down 1.3% at RM2,232 (US$537.31) a tonne at the midday break, its sharpest decline in nearly two weeks.

Trading volumes stood at 30,321 lots of 25 tonnes each at noon.

"Palm is down mirroring weakness in competing vegetable oils," said a Kuala Lumpur-based trader, referring to CBOT soyoil and related edible oils on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange.

He added that the overnight drop in crude oil prices also contributed to palm's declines.

Oil prices saw sharp drops during trade on Wednesday due to a jump in US crude stockpiles, but had inched up in trade on Thursday morning.

Palm prices are impacted by movements in crude oil, as the vegetable oil is used as feedstock to make biodiesel.

In other related oils, the Chicago December soybean oil contract was down 0.5% on Thursday as the harvest of a record US crop picked up steam this week and on a lack of demand for US soybean supplies from China.

Meanwhile, the January soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange declined 0.5% and the Dalian January palm oil contract fell 1%.

Palm oil prices are affected by movements of other edible oils as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.

 

 

Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 0452 GMT

Contract	Month	Last	Change	Low	High	Volume
MY PALM OIL	NOV8	2136	-20.00	2134	2140	314
MY PALM OIL	DEC8	2181	-29.00	2180	2198	8110
MY PALM OIL	JAN9	2232	-29.00	2232	2248	12806
CHINA PALM OLEIN	JAN9	4756	-46.00	4750	4824	224100
CHINA SOYOIL	JAN9	5840	-30.00	5832	5884	193460
CBOT SOY OIL	DEC8	29.41	-0.15	29.39	29.57	2141
INDIA PALM OIL	OCT8	0.00	+0.00	0.00	0	0
INDIA SOYOIL	NOV8	769.8	+6.05	763	772.2	24540
NYMEX CRUDE	NOV8	69.80	+0.05	69.57	70.03	11520

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 = RM4.1540)
(US$1 = 6.9352 Chinese yuan)
(US$1 = 73.5900 Indian rupees)