KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures came off near two-week lows to close marginally higher on Thursday, tracking gains in rival oilseed soy. Benchmark palm oil futures for December on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange closed up 0.4 per cent at 2,616 ringgit ($634.64) a tonne.

Earlier in the session, the contract fell to the lowest since Sept. 19 at 2,581 ringgit. Traded volumes stood at 54,211 lots of 25 tonnes each at noon.

“The market seems uncertain after the selldown yesterday,” said a trader based in Kuala Lumpur.

Palm fell 2.2pc on Wednesday in its sharpest decline in six weeks due to weak export demand, after shedding 1.9pc in the previous session.

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2016