KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures declined for a fourth straight session on Monday to their lowest in nearly three weeks as traders sold positions after data showed exports fell this month, and as competing oil markets weighed on prices.

By the day’s close, the benchmark palm oil for October delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was down 1.74 per cent at 2,140 ringgit ($561.39) a tonne after hitting 2,139 ringgit, its lowest since July 8, earlier in the session.

Total traded volume stood at 41,956 lots of 25 tonnes each, well above the roughly 35,500 lots usually traded daily.

Societe Generale de Surveillance, another cargo surveyor, said exports of Malaysian palm oil products for July 1-25 fell 15.4pc to 1,178,568 tonnes from 1,393,204 tonnes shipped during June 1-25.

For palm prices to break the current downtrend, exports need to pick up, the trader said.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2015

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