JAKARTA: Malaysian palm oil futures rebounded on Tuesday to snap four days of declines but remained not far off their lowest in almost six weeks as a big domestic crop, poor demand and weak competing oil prices put pressure on the edible oil.

By the close, the benchmark April contract had gained 0.28 per cent to 2,172 ringgit ($597) per tonne, after touching 2,151 ringgit in early trade, the contract’s lowest point since Dec. 19.

Traded volume stood at 50,050 lots of 25 tonnes, well above the typical 35,000 lots.

“The bigger picture is still bearish but for the short term we see a long-awaited upward correction,” said a trader with a foreign commodities firm in Kuala Lumpur. However, some traders doubted how high prices would go in the short term, with one suggesting they would likely hover around 2,200 ringgit over the next five days.

Published in Dawn January 28th, 2015

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