KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures ended a four-session decline with a more than 1 per cent gain on Monday evening, rising on the back of bullish sentiment at an industry conference held in Karachi this week.

The benchmark palm oil contract for April delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was up 1.2pc at 2,475 ringgit ($629.29) a tonne at the end of the trading day, its sharpest daily gain in more than two weeks. Trading volumes stood at 31,893 lots of 25 tonnes each by the close. “Market support is coming in after the conference was held, with industry analysts expecting prices to go up before coming down again,” said a Kuala Lumpur-based trader, referring to the Pakistan Edible Oil Conference in Karachi on Saturday.

Malaysian palm oil prices could rise to 2,700 ringgit a tonne in the first quarter of the year because production is expected to decline on a seasonal basis, said two leading industry analysts at the conference.

Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2018