KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 26: Malaysian crude palm futures extended gains on Monday to a record, shrugging off firm exports and focusing on gains in crude and soyaoil markets.
But investors booked profits in the afternoon session, after the market reached its ninth record in nearly six weeks.
Palm oil closely tracks the crude oil market -- which is trading just a whisker from the $100 a barrel milestone -- as the commodity is a feedstock for biofuel.
The February contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange rose 0.8 per cent to a record high of 3,068 ringgit ($915). The contract settled 6 ringgit down at 3,038 ringgit.
Plantation players are hardly hedging because the prices are too extreme but the funds are swallowing the market, pushing it up on crude and taking it down for some profits, said a trader from a leading plantation firm.
Other traded months ranged between a decline of 3 ringgit to a rise of 25 ringgit. Overall trade stood at 10,917 lots of 25 tons each.
Palm oil and soyaoil are used in products ranging from cosmetics and confectionaries to biofuel, and their prices often move in tandem.
Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for November 1-25 rose 0.7 per cent to 1,126,683 tons from 1,119,011 tonnes shipped between October 1-25, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said on Monday.
Another cargo surveyor, Societe General de Surveillance, said exports in the same period fell 0.4 per cent to 1,107,615 tons.
Indonesian crude palm oil prices soared 1.86 per cent to a record high of 8,252 rupiah ($0.880) a kg on Monday following the gains in Malaysia.
In Malaysia’s physical market, crude palm oil for November shipment in the southern region was quoted at 3,030/3,040 ringgit a ton. Trades were done between 3,030 and 3,040 ringgit.—Reuters
