KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures touched a fresh eight-month low on Wednesday, tracking weakness in comparative edible oils, although traders expect selling pressure to reduce ahead of the long weekend.

Malaysian palm, which set the tone for global prices, recorded its sixth straight session of losses on the back of strength in the ringgit and concerns over rising crude palm oil production in key growers. The ringgit re­­treated 0.1 per cent on Wednesday after three days of gains.

The benchmark July contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives exchange dropped to 2,070 ringgit in early trade, its lowest since Sept 22, before rising to 2,081 ringgit ($585) a tonne by the day’s close-down 0.6pc from the previous session.

Malaysian markets will be closed from Friday for public holidays, and reopen on May 5. Total traded volume on Wednesday stood at 43,276 lots of 25 tonnes each, above the usual 35,000 lots.

The US July soyoil contract was down 0.1pc in late Asian trade, while the most active September soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange fell 0.9pc.

Crude palm oil production between April and June was seen at 4.80 million tonnes, higher than 4.78m tonnes in 2014.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2015

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