KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures fell on Friday evening for a third consecutive week of losses, tracking declining rival vegetable oils and amid investor concerns over Britain’s vote to leave the European Union.

The market fell for two sessions this week before paring losses in late trade on Thursday, but declined on Friday to fall 2.9 per cent this week.

Benchmark palm oil futures for September delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange fell 0.2pc to 2,379 ringgit ($582) per tonne in the evening, unchanged from during the midday break.

Traded volumes stood at 65,216 lots of 25 tonnes each at the close of trade. Palm has declined in nearly all of its sessions in the last three weeks as poor fundamentals weighed on prices.

Traders expect output to rise in line with the seasonal trend and for exports to weaken after Ramadan demand in the coming months.

The Muslim holy festival entails day-long fasts broken by communal feasting, incurring higher palm oil demand for cooking the month before Ramadan.

In competing vegetable oils, the Chicago Board of Trade soyoil contract for July fell 1.9pc, while the September soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange declined 1.6pc.

Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2016