KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures hit a 16-month low on Thursday, weighed down by low demand and high stockpiles, as well as weakness in edible oils on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange.

The benchmark palm oil contract for February delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange dropped as much as 1.6 per cent to its lowest since Aug 8, 2016, at 2,418 ringgit, before settling down 0.2pc at 2,452 ringgit a tonne at the close of trade.

Palm oil has been on a downward trend recently, shedding 5.8pc so far this month after declining 7.5pc in November.

It has dropped 1.1pc so far this week in what could be its seventh straight weekly fall. Trading volumes stood at 72,478 lots of 25 tonnes each on Thursday evening.

“Dalian is down a lot. As palm is weighed down by bumper stocks and slow demand, we drop with a bit of weakness externally,” said a Kuala Lumpur-based trader, referring to related edible oils on the Dalian Commodity Exchange.

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2017