KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures slid for a third consecutive session on Monday, falling to its lowest since mid-November as slowing demand and expectations of higher supplies weighed on the market.

Benchmark palm oil futures for May delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange finished down 1.1 per cent to 2,827 ringgit ($634.43) a tonne, the weakest since Nov 15. Traded volumes stood at 72,604 lots of 25 tonnes.

“There is not much direction for the market as Chicago is closed today,” a Kuala Lumpur-based trader said. “As far as fundamentals are concerned, it is pretty bearish as the output is rising everywhere, Indonesia and Malaysia.

The Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures, which often direct movement in palm oil, were closed on Monday for the Presidents Day federal holiday.

In recent weeks, palm oil prices have reached their highest in more than four years as market supplies are tight on low production levels.

Palm’s fresh fruit yields are still suffering the effects of a crop-damaging El Nino, but expectations of a recovery by the second-half of the year are weighing on prices, according to industry analysts.

Meanwhile, the demand is slipping. Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for Feb 1-20 fell 0.8pc to 733,288 tonnes from 739,367 tonnes shipped a month ago, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said on Monday.

Published in Dawn, February 21st, 2017