KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 17: Malaysian crude palm oil futures ended flat on Wednesday as buyers were hesitant to commit after seeing rival soyaoil making little headway in two days of trade.

Dealers foresaw palm oil prices at 1,370 to 1,380 ringgit ($365-$368) a ton in the near term, supported by strong demand and a possible drop in August production of palm oil due to fewer working days on plantations after a recent haze episode.

But they said a correction was also likely if palm oil’s price advantage to soyaoil - once at $100 a ton but now just around $40 — declined further. Malaysia’s largest buyer of palm oil only a few years ago, India has now fallen to third place, after China and the United States.

The benchmark third-month crude palm oil contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives, November, closed at $367.20 a ton, unchanged from Tuesday.

Trade totalled 4,963 lots of 25 tons each, below the 6,000 lots typically seen on a busy day. —Reuters