KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures recovered from early session losses to hit a two-month high on Wednesday evening as it tracked gains in rival oilseed soy on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT).

Palm was down nearly 1 per cent at the midday break, hurt by expectations of higher production in July. But the benchmark palm oil contract for October delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange recovered to close up 0.1pc at 2,629 ringgit ($613.89), and touched an interday peak of 2,637 ringgit, its highest since May 23.

Traded volumes stood at 50,319 lots of 25 tonnes each at the close of trade. “Gains in CBOT soyoil could have lead to covering and technical buying,” said a Kuala Lumpur based futures trader. Palm tracks the movements in related edible oils as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2017