June 26, 2007	Tuesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 10, 1428

KUALA LUMPUR, June 25: Malaysian crude palm oil futures edged lower in thin trade on Monday, pressured by a decline in prices of rival soyabean oil and faltering export demand.

The benchmark September contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange settled down 8 ringgit, or 0.3 per cent, at 2,372 ringgit ($685) a ton after touching an intra-day low of 2,350 ringgit.

Other traded months fell between 7 and 27 ringgit while the August contract was marginally up. Overall trade fell to 8,040 lots of 25 tonnes each, from 12,000 lots traded by the end of a routine day.

The market is clearly watching the losses made in soyaoil futures at the Chicago Board of Trade, said a dealer. And from the way the first 25 days of exports have slowed down, stocks are definitely going to increase for this month.

Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for June 1-25 fell 10.6 per cent to 821,500 tons from 918,738 tonnes shipped between May 1 and 25, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said on Monday.

Players are now waiting by the sidelines for the export data for the whole month, which will definitely fall further, said another dealer. Once the market factors this in, there could be another sell-off. Palm oil is more than 14 per cent off an historic high of 2,764 ringgit reached earlier this month due to robust demand from top importers India and China and dwindling stocks at home.

Malaysia may delay a plan to require all domestic diesel fuel to contain a minimum 5 per cent palm oil-based biofuel beyond next year as feedstock costs surge, the country's commodities minister said on Monday.—Reuters