JAKARTA: Malaysian palm oil prices sank to their lowest levels in almost five years on Tuesday as declining crude and soybean oil prices pushed them down.

By Tuesday’s close, the benchmark November contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange had shed 1.05 per cent to 2,066 ringgit ($655) per tonne, its lowest since October 2009. Total traded volume stood at 40,824 lots of 25 tonnes, above the daily traded average of 35,000 lots.

“The market is down and there was no impetus to move higher,” said a trader with a foreign commodities brokerage in Kuala Lumpur, “although it is a little oversold.”

Weak crude, soybean and soybean oil prices had helped push palm prices to new lows after a lull in trading earlier in the day, he said.

Palm oil prices failed to breach the 2,100 ringgit per tonne level during the day, which could have signalled that a bottom price had been reached, he said.

“Then we’d see a proper retracement coming (and) whatever bearish elements (would) have already been factored into prices,” he said.

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2014